Seduction as an art. Interesting facts Scheherazade biography

Scheherazade was the daughter of the vizier of the formidable and oppressive Persian king Shahryar. It is known that Shahriyar was very unkind to women. Thus, having once caught his wife being unfaithful, he enragedly ordered her to be killed immediately, but even this seemed not enough to him. And then Shahriyar conceived a new revenge - every night he demanded a new young woman into his bedchamber, and in the morning he invariably ordered the killing of his nightly mistresses. Thus, the formidable ruler took revenge on all women for his wife’s betrayal. This went on for several years.

At that time, his vizier grew up a daughter named Scheherazade, a girl of extraordinary beauty and sharp mind. So, one day she asked her father to marry her to Shakhriyar. The vizier was horrified by such a proposal - giving his own beautiful daughter to the despot seemed to him complete recklessness, because all that awaited her ahead was inevitable death. But Scheherazade knew how to insist on her own, and soon Shahriyar already called a new young wife to his bedroom.

Unlike all the previous girls, Scheherazade was not content with the mere function of a mistress, but began to tell the king a fairy tale. The plot of this tale turned out to be so exciting that when dawn came, the king wanted to hear its continuation. And then Scheherazade promised him that if he lived until the next night, Shahriyar would certainly hear the continuation of the fairy tale. This is how she managed to survive the night with the formidable ruler, which, alas, no other girl had ever managed before. Scheherazade probably managed to make a considerable impression on the ruler, and when the next night came, he, contrary to his rules, ordered to call her again.

Scheherazade again told her tale - and the night was barely enough to reach the end, and when the tale ended, the ruler immediately demanded a new tale, and as a result, she managed to stay alive again, and Shahriyar again waited for the next evening.

This went on for a thousand and one nights, and over these years Scheherazade managed not only to tell Shahryar a huge number of fairy tales, but also to give birth to three sons. Shahryar simply adored his eloquent wife, demanding from her more and more fairy tales, of which Scheherazade was a great master. When, after a thousand and one nights, all of Scheherazade’s tales ended, the formidable ruler already loved her so much that he could not even think about her execution.

By the way, many researchers are inclined to believe that during those years when Shahriyar killed every new woman, he managed to become a severe psychopath, and Scheherazade, with her fairy tales, conducted competent and effective psychotherapy sessions, ultimately finally improving her husband’s sick psyche.

The image of the beautiful and at the same time cunning and seductive Scheherazade has inspired composers and poets many times. Thus, under the impression of “Arabian Tales,” N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his famous symphonic suite; there is also a classical ballet of the same name, as well as several films.

The story of Shahriyar and Scheherazade is one of the most profound and amazing stories in literature. It is known that originally in Arabic tales this woman was called Shirazad (Šīrāzād), but today everyone knows her as Scheherazade.

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Surprisingly, in many comments to The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade is praised not so much as an intelligent and talented woman, but as an insidious and cunning seductress, as if she did not save the lives of herself and thousands of innocent girls with her eloquence. Alas, sometimes history turns out to be cruel and unfair.

“Do not be trusting of women, Do not believe their vows and oaths; Their forgiveness, as well as their malice, are connected with lust alone,” it is believed that these words at the beginning of the book indirectly relate to Scheherazade.

However, be that as it may, the image of the narrator Scheherazade is still associated primarily with an oriental beauty, seductive and desirable, soft-spoken and eloquent.

The heroine-storyteller from the collection of Persian fairy tales “A Thousand and One Nights.” The main character of “The Tale of King Shahryar and His Brother,” a frame story that frames the cycle and connects the disparate stories with a single thread.

History of creation

It is still not known for certain how the collection “1001 Nights” appeared in the form that is known now. The first researchers looked for the roots of this body of tales in India, but modern researchers do not find significant evidence in favor of this theory. It seems that the prototype of the Arabian Nights tales known to us was a collection from Persia called “A Thousand Legends”, or “Khezar Afsane”.

This text was translated into Arabic in the 10th century, and it became known as “A Thousand Nights.” The translation enjoyed enormous popularity in Baghdad, the capital of the eastern caliphate, as evidenced by Arab authors of that time. The fairy tales themselves that were part of the collection have not reached us, but the frame story is known and coincides with the framing story from One Thousand and One Nights.

Various fairy tales and cycles were inserted into this frame story at different times. Some of them existed independently even before inclusion in the collection, in oral form. The demand for manuscripts of “1001 Nights” was great at that time, so booksellers could write down tales directly from the words of professional storytellers, who borrowed information from oral sources.

Biography

Soon the royal brothers met another woman and learned that she had cuckolded her genie husband 570 times - not even hiding, but right in the presence of her husband while he was in his sleep. Each of these betrayals is marked by a ring; the libertine made a necklace out of them and wears them around her neck. This sad experience leads the brothers to the opinion that among women there are no women who are not libertine.

Shahryar returns home and there executes his adulterous wife, and at the same time his concubines. After this, King Shahriyar institutes the following order: every night an innocent girl is brought to him, the ruler takes possession of her, and at dawn he orders her to be executed so that the girl does not have time to deteriorate.

Scheherazade stops this bloody chaos. The girl is begging to become the next suicide concubine of King Shahriyar. Once in the royal bedroom, she tells the ruler fascinating tales and deliberately stops each one at the most interesting place exactly when the sun rises. The intrigued king has to postpone the execution of Scheherazade every morning in order to hear the continuation of the story the next night.

This continues for a thousand and one nights in a row, until Scheherazade comes to the king with three children born to him during this time. By that time, the king’s first son was already walking, the second was crawling, and the third was suckling. Scheherazade asks the king to spare her in the name of the children, but by that time Shahriyar had already cooled down and lost his bloodthirstiness. The king calls Scheherazade God-fearing, chaste and pure and has mercy on the heroine, and at the same time stops exterminating women. So the girl’s intelligence, eloquence and beauty save the lives of hundreds of innocent women.

"1001 nights"

The collection includes three types of fairy tales. The first is heroic tales. These include long chivalric romances and fantasy tales that go back to the oldest Persian collection, “A Thousand Legends,” discussed above. These tales are written in a gloomy and solemn style, and involve nobles, courtiers and royalty. The heroic stories have undergone careful literary processing; traces of folk speech have been removed from them, but there are many poetic quotations from the Arabic classics.

Adventure tales are short stories whose roots go back to the environment of traders and artisans. The images of sultans and kings are reduced here; these characters already look like ordinary, not exalted human beings. In terms of content, these tales are classified as fabliaux - entertaining and instructive short stories that are created in an urban environment; they are characterized by rough humor. There is a lot of harem life and love stories with cunning plans, the heroes are rich merchants and their lovers.

The third type is picaresque tales. Here we are talking about the lives of urban beggars, thieves, fishermen, shoemakers and others. The characters in picaresque tales are tricksters, swindlers and swindlers of both sexes. Here rulers and clergy are ridiculed; there is no royal pathos, as opposed to heroic fairy tales. The style of these texts is close to colloquial speech; there are almost no poetic inserts. The characters in these tales are brave and enterprising.

Film adaptations

The image of Scheherazade also inspired filmmakers. In 1947, the film “The Song of Scheherazade” was released in the United States. In the USSR in the 80s of the last century, a trilogy was filmed based on the fairy tales “A Thousand and One Nights” (“And Another Night of Scheherazade...”, “New Tales of Scheherazade”, “The Last Night of Scheherazade”), where the role of Scheherazade was played by the actress Elena Tonunts.

In 1963, the heroine appeared on French screens in the adventurous drama that bears her name. There, the theme of love between the heroine and the Frenchman Renaud de Villecroix, a subject of the Baghdad Caliph, who saves the beauty from death on the way to the Holy Land, is played out.

Another famous French film adaptation was released in 1990 and is called “A Thousand and One Nights.” In addition to Scheherazade, the plot includes a genie who came from modern London and helps the heroine using technology invented in the 20th century.

• In the collection “1001 Nights” that has come down to us, 999 nights are actually described, and not a thousand and one, as the title suggests. Two nights were lost due to a census taker's error.
• The composer, inspired by Arabian tales, created a symphonic suite called “Scheherazade”. In 1910, a ballet of the same name was staged based on this music, the scenery and costumes for which were created by the artist Bakst.

• In Soviet times, the Scarlet Sails factory produced a cheap perfume called Shahrazade with a sweet, strong aroma that was reminiscent of Montpensier lollipops. Nowadays, another Scheherazade perfume is sold under the Brocard brand. This is a perfume with a floral oriental aroma.

Scheherazade: How the story of Scheherazade ended (Arabic tale)

Oh, most respected ones! Now you know how cleverly Scheherazade acted, each time interrupting her story at the most interesting place so that the next day the Shah, burning with impatience, would be eager to listen to it and find out how it ended. And every morning the Chief Vizier tremblingly entered the Shah’s chambers, fearing for the life of his daughter. But for three years, day after day, the Shah listened to her stories with delight, and over the years his love grew. They lived happily, and Scheherazade bore her master three sons.

And then she came to him and said:
“My lord and master, I entertained you exactly a thousand and one nights, and you never got bored listening to my stories.” Can I invite our children here so we can all spend some time together? And then I'll ask you something.
The Shah happily agreed. And immediately the three little children were brought in so that they could see their mother and father sitting together. And after some time the Shah asked:
– What did you want to ask me?
And Scheherazade said:
- Oh, the greatest and fairest! After three happy years, will you end my life and make these innocent kids orphans? I beg you to have mercy on me, mother of your children.
“My dearest wife,” said the Shah, “long ago I realized that I could not be separated from you.” You will always be by my side, and may Allah protect you and our children forever.
The next day he called the Chief Vizier and showered him with many gifts, promising mercy and favor as a sign of admiration for his beautiful and intelligent daughter. And then he ordered a great and lavish feast to be prepared to celebrate his wedding with Scheherazade, who would become his wonderful and wise companion for many years of his coming reign.

Everyone remembers fairy tales from childhood; it was especially fascinating to listen to Arabic tales about the Thousand and One Nights, where the character was the well-known Scheherazade.

Origin:

The name is beautiful, even mysterious. Like any other, it has a certain meaning and a corresponding influence on the fate of its bearer.

But for other people, far from the secrets of the East, everything connected with it seems secret and, accordingly, terribly interesting. And in fact it is so, history is very interesting to all people.

The meaning of the name Scheherazade is ambiguous, because on the one hand it means “daughter of the Shah” in Persian, but upon further study it turns out that it also means “born in the city.” The fact is that the very meaning of the word “Shah” in the ancient Persian language is dual, because it means both the ruler of the city and the city itself. Similar to how in Kievan Rus there were policemen or mayors in cities.

If we remember the same notorious fairy tale, then in it is the name of the vizier’s daughter, who was this young lady in the plot, and wonder what the name Scheherazade means, then it was translated as “one who has a noble origin,” that is, a girl of noble blood .

In ancient Persia, even then they attached great importance to what name to give to a born child, because his fate supposedly depended on this. Names also had a class purpose, so a newborn peasant child would never be given a name whose translation was so noble.

It must be said that any name, both male and female, contains a special meaning, which is also called the secret of the name. The science of numerology helps us understand it. To calculate the number of a name, it will be enough to add the serial numbers of the letters together, and then add the resulting digits of the number. You can also use a newer method that uses a number matching table.

In the last version, it turns out that the number of this name will be six. In this case, the secret of the name Scheherazade is a symbol of peace, prosperity, stability, under the auspices of the planet Venus.

If we turn to the same numerology, then the meaning of each number is also individual. So, the same number six signifies hard work and also luck. How can one not remember the fairy tale again, because how many girls before Scheherazade were executed after just one night. And she was able to captivate, intrigue and even make the first man of the state fall in love with her, not to mention avoid death.

And her tales, it must be said, are very interesting, because who, after Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, has not tried to open doors with the help of a magic spell “sim-sim, open”, persistently looking for that very door. Isn't Sinbad the Sailor wonderful?

Most boys, hearing about his travels, imagine themselves in his place, play corresponding games and generally try to imitate him in every possible way. And the great Shah learned all these tales from his bride.

Scheherazade (Scheherazade, Shihirazade, Shahrazade) - the legendary main character of “The Tale of King Shahryar and His Brother,” which borders the Persian fairy tale cycle “A Thousand and One Nights” and serves as a connecting thread between other stories.

Scheherazade is the eldest daughter of the royal vizier, a girl of rare beauty and remarkable intelligence, who volunteered to free the people from the consequences of Shahriyar’s unsuccessful marriage (having survived his wife’s betrayal, the king became convinced of the depravity of women, but since it was difficult to do without them, Shahriyar took possession of an innocent girl every night, and in the morning killed her).

Having asked to enter the royal bedchamber as another victim wife, Scheherazade used all her eloquence, telling the king fairy tales before sunrise (which, not without intent, came at the most interesting point in the story). Shahriyar's curiosity outweighed his bloodthirstiness every time, and he gave Scheherazade a reprieve until the next night, wanting to hear the end of the tale, but the next night everything was repeated. Thus, the cunning girl played for time long enough until Shahryar returned to common sense and abandoned the mass extermination of women.

see also

• Scheherazade - ballet
• (643) Scheherazade is an asteroid discovered in 1907.

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Excerpt characterizing Scheherazade (character)

When Natasha opened his door with her usual movement, letting the princess pass first, Princess Marya already felt ready sobs in her throat. No matter how much she prepared or tried to calm down, she knew that she would not be able to see him without tears.
Princess Marya understood what Natasha meant with the words: this happened two days ago. She understood that this meant that he had suddenly softened, and that this softening and tenderness were signs of death. As she approached the door, she already saw in her imagination that face of Andryusha, which she had known since childhood, tender, meek, touching, which he so rarely saw and therefore always had such a strong effect on her. She knew that he would say quiet, tender words to her, like those her father had told her before his death, and that she would not bear it and would burst into tears over him. But, sooner or later, it had to be, and she entered the room. The sobs came closer and closer to her throat, while with her myopic eyes she discerned his form more and more clearly and looked for his features, and then she saw his face and met his gaze.
He was lying on the sofa, covered with pillows, wearing a squirrel fur robe. He was thin and pale. One thin, transparent white hand held a handkerchief; with the other, with quiet movements of his fingers, he touched his thin, overgrown mustache. His eyes looked at those entering.
Seeing his face and meeting his gaze, Princess Marya suddenly moderated the speed of her step and felt that her tears had suddenly dried up and her sobs had stopped. Catching the expression on his face and gaze, she suddenly became shy and felt guilty.
“What is my fault?” – she asked herself. “The fact that you live and think about living things, and I!..” answered his cold, stern gaze.