General Introduction Of The Book
There exist different societies across the universe with different cultures, which brings the element of diversity. These diverse cultures exhibited among societies are always recorded in literal writings and passed down from generation to generation. Through these literature materials, the current generation can learn how the generations that preceded them several years ago conducted their societies. Majorly these societies are formed along racial groups such as the whites and the blacks or along ethnic groups such as Arabian and the Hispanics or along religious lines such as Muslims and Christians. One such literature material that narrates events of the past is the Arabian nights. The Arabian nights is a collection of tales from the Arabian golden age revolving around sultan Shahrayar and his wife, Scheherazade.
Sultan Shahrayar’s brother shahzaman finds relief upon witnessing that his brother’s wife was also unfaithful. Shahzaman had found his wife sleeping with one of the cooks in his estates just before he started the journey to visit his brother sultan Shahrayar (Wiggin et al. pg 2). This made him boil with anger and rage, and as a result, he killed both his wife and the cook. The experience brought a lot of sadness to him, and while he was at his brother’s palace, he found no joy in anything, and he could not eat nor rejoice with everyone, and consequently, he started wasting away something that made his brother think that he was homesick. Sultan Shahrayar wanted to send his brother back to his home, and so he asked him to accompany him for a ten-day hunting trip. Shahzaman politely declines this proposal, and sultan Shahrayar set out for the trip all by himself accompanied by his troops. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
While in his quarters, shahzaman witnessed Scheherazade unfaithful actions aided by ten maids accompanied by other ten black slaves, while she enjoyed herself with mas Ud. After witnessing this act, shahzaman realized that he was not alone in the problem he was facing. His brother sultan Shahrayar with all his power and wealth had a cheating wife too. For this reason, he resolved to enjoy life once again, a change that his brother realized upon his return, and he asked his brother to at least tell him why he had all that rejuvenated mood. Shahzaman never wanted to disclose to his brother the exact reason why he was happy once again, but sultan Shahzman implored him to tell him the reason in which he gave in and explained to him what he had witnessed (Wiggin et al. pg 4).
To confirm his brother’s allegations, sultan Shahrayar staged a hunting trip, and upon darkness, he sneaked back with his brother shahzaman, and in the morning, they witnessed and confirmed shahzaman’s allegations. They sneaked out of the city once again and went to the lake shores, and while at the shore, they saw a demon emerge from the lake on to the shore with a glass chest with four steel locks. The sultan and his brother were frightened, and so they resorted to climbing the tallest tree; unfortunately, the demon chose the tree as his resting spot. The demon unlocked the glass chest, and a beautiful woman emerged from it. Upon the demon falling asleep, the woman looked up the tree and noticed the two brothers. She ordered them to climb down and come to her, or she will wake the sleeping demon. Sultan Shahrayar and his brother, Shahzman, obliged to the woman’s demands and climbed down. She again threatened them to have sex with her, or she will wake the sleeping demon. They obeyed her once again, and upon finishing the woman told them to surrender their rings to her, which she combined with other 98 rings which belonged to the other men who have slept with her right under the demon’s nose.
Sultan Shahrayar wondered how women are evil creatures, considering how this woman had a strong and powerful protection in the name of the demon, and she still managed to cheat on him. He made a resolution to kill his wife together with the slave girls. He performed this act, after which he swore to sleep with girls at night and kill them in the morning. He lived by this for quite some time until Shahrazad, his vizier’s daughter, begged his father the vizier to take her to the king one night. The vizier was afraid to do this, for he knew he was taking his daughter to her death. However, she coerced him until he obeyed and took Shahrazad to the king (Wiggin et al. pg 17). Since Shahrazad was wise, she tricked the king with stories each, and the king spared her life each morning. Throughout this book, there exist several cases of orientalism, especially those based on women.
Other Investigations on the Nights and the Rise of Orientalism
The cultural diversity present in the universe today presents societies with different cultural values. Some stereotypes arise from this differential in cultural values, which has brought about orientalism. Orientalism is a representation of the Asian culture in a way that emphasizes that the culture embraces a colonialist attitude. In essence, it translates to disregarding and denuding the humanity of other cultures and in most cases, it exists between the west (the western culture) and the east (the Arabs and Asians), with the west regarding the eastern culture as a backward and non-civilized culture (Shatz pg 4). The hostilities and uncaring actions illustrated in the Arabian nights seem to justify this orientalism attitude and claims directed to the Arabian culture.
According to said (1978), orientalism is a power construct by the powerful societies to rule the societies with less power. Said identifies orientalism as a foreign ambassador in the Arabian countries aimed at belittling the Arabian cultural values. Additionally, he used bush’s administration justification of their Afghanistan invasion, in which the administration asserted that liberating the Arabian women was one of the reasons for the invasion. This statement spoke voluminous negative things about the Arabian culture in the contemporary world. Ever since the advent of civilization, orientalism has been in existence majorly presented as a power construct, and there have been several forms of orientalism, one of them is sexual orientalism among women.
Additionally, Liddle, Joanna, and Shirin (pg 497) asserted that the discourse of orientalism had been produced over different times with different effects in the changed political circumstances. The first case the western staged themselves as the superior cultures in consideration of the level of civilization. Secondly, western culture placed the western women as the leaders in global feminism. Orientalism can be produced by authors misrepresenting the human subjects they are talking about and uncritical use of other authors’ literature. Further, Liddle, Joanna, and Shirin (pg 497) point out that this discourse can also be activated in the readers’ mind if the author fails to challenge established cognitive structures in the reader.
Method to be used in the study
Sexual orientalism among women can be manifested in many forms, which include an uncontrollable desire for sex, infidelity among married women, orgies, and lust. These exist within the contemporary world but can be said to have been in existence for a long period. Throughout this paper, an attempt has been made to show the extent to which a major orientalist trope that of the sexual oriental woman can be traced back to The Frame Tale of the nights.
A close examination of the frame tale of the night will be performed to justify this. The several instances that confirm the above statement will be considered as well as employing deeper understanding to unearth the hidden meaning of characters’ actions within these tales.
Orientalism In A More General Way
Origin and development of orientalism
Orientalism can be said to date back to the period in which the European started to colonize the Arabian world. This period was the advent of the west constructing the eastern culture as an inferior culture that needed the intervention of the western culture as their rescue. Oriental artists in a bid to popularize their paintings among the European viewers used veiled women, snake charmers, and courtesan. These artistic works covered a range of genres and subjects, which included domestic interiors, nudes, biblical paintings, and grand historical (Rebecca para 4). The harem picture was one key genre of orientalism. Male artist were denied access to seraglios, and so they relied on hearsay and imaginations in depicting beautiful women and opulent interiors. The genre also allowed artists to depict erotic nudes and highly sexual narratives outside of a mythological context as their exotic location distanced the Western viewer sufficiently to make them morally permissible. In most cases, oriental paintings contain images infused with rich colors such as gold, red, and orange. These images are accompanied by the use of light and shadow utilized by westerners in creating a sense of dirty heat.
Oriental paintings can be traced back to 1463 when Venice was at war with the ottoman empire. Under the sultan, Mehmet II rule ottoman empire defeated Venice in several regions and were`forced to pay indemnities in order to continue trading in the black sea. And in 1479, the Venetian government sent its official court painter to work for the sultan, a cultural ambassador (Shatz pg 3). When he returned to Venice in the year 1481, he continued to include oriental motifs in his artwork, as can be seen in saint mark preaching in Alexandria. Soon afterward, Venetian artists started to integrate oriental motifs in their artistic works. An example is the Veronese’s wedding feast in Cana. The painting depicts Jesus at the center with his disciples and Christian guest wearing western clothes on his right while Jewish guests wearing oriental cloths in his right. The oriental depiction of Jewish in this picture became traditional art treatment until the 19th century, as depicted in Gustave Doré’s engravings in his La Grande Bible de Tours in 1866. The franco-ottoman alliance led to a number of cultural and scientific exchanges, notably in the 18th century. Several French artists embraced the Turkish culture, and it was integrated into the rococo art.
Orientalism gained momentum when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded and conquered Egypt in 1798. This led to an influx of Egyptian goods in the French market. One French artist by the name baron Dominique-vivant Denon published a book in 1802 by the name Voyage Dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes du Général Bonaparte which contained a detailed description of the Egyptian motif drawn from temples, columns, and tombs. These later influenced the French artwork.
Several painters promoted orientalism in the 19th jean-auguste-Dominique-Ingres, Antoin jean gros, and Eugene Delacroix. Antoin jean gross was napoleon’s official painter and one of the pioneers of the neoclassical orientalism (Shatz pg 13). He painted the Egyptian emperor’s visit to his plague-stricken soldiers in Syria, which was used as propaganda for inserting the necessity of French imperialism in Egypt. This painting depicted the Islamic horseshoe arch, the city walls, a mosque, and a Syrian man distributing bread to the sick. This painting paved the way for orientalism.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was an innovative artist who advanced the La Grand Odalisque in 1814, an artistic work that was commissioned by Queen Caroline Murat of Naples. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres used the middle eastern context instead of using the accepted context for the nude through mythology. The French word odalisque was drawn from the Turkish word odalik, which meant chambermaid. The French used the term odalisque to refer to a concubine in a harem. On the other hand, the Turkish culture used the term odalik to refer to a young female slave, not exactly a concubine but rather a maid wearing the same robes worn by male pages. Ingres usage of the term odalisque in the painting resulted in fully-fledged orientalism (Rebecca para 7). Though he never visited the middle east, he relied on other people’s accounts to create imageries of his own.
Eugene Delacroix utilized his diplomatic trip to morocco in 1832 to sketch several things, including watercolors. He later utilized these sketches in painting women of Algiers in their apartments. This painting became the groundbreaking model for the popular genre of the harem, consequently creating interest among romantic artists to embrace orientalism.
Concepts Styles And Genre Of Orientalism
Religious painting
Orientalism impacted religious paintings as artists sought to establish truthfulness in scenes depicted in the bible. William Holman Hunt, who is a British artist and leader of the Raphaelite brotherhood, in the 1850s, went to Palestine to employ ethnographically accurate detail for the scapegoat. Additionally, the Russian Peredvizhnik group utilized a realistic approach to their religious scenes at the holy land as depicted in Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, an artistic work advanced by Vasily Polenov in 1887 (Shatz pg 14).
Genre painting
Probably the most common oriental genre is the harem genre. Considering how the slave trade was booming in the 18th and 19th centuries, this genre was closely associated with this trade. Some of the artistic works in this genre concerning the slave trade include inspection of new arrivals by Giulio Rosati, the white slave by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy in 1888, among other artistic works. These works placed more emphasis on female slaves as nude and placed more emphasis on the whiteness of the skin. Some hidden meaning in these paintings is that there exists an exquisite sexual experience in the east that an individual can never obtain in the west (Rebecca para 10).
Architecture and design
Egyptian designs and motifs were incorporated in both the French and British empires. And later on, Egyptian inspired interiors and furniture became commonly used by the upper-class members within these societies. Additionally, Egyptian motif like sun disc, lotus blossom, and the head of Hathor were used in buildings together with elements like window frames that narrow at the top and papyrus columns
Photography
In the mid 19th century, several photographers such as Felix Bonfils started making postcards for Europeans both at home and those traveling to the middle east. Bonfil moved to Beirut, where created images that were meant to reveal the oriental culture that existed in the east. Bonfils and other photographers from Europe had their own expectations and desire to fulfill, which made them select the particular elements within their photographing environment that full filled their desire (Shatz pg 15). The attitude presented in the photographs taken by Bofill and his fellow photographers became a living visual document to prove an imaginary reality.
Military paintings
Antoine-Jean Gros’s paintings that were aimed at spreading propaganda spread by the napoleon against the ottoman empire and a subsequently heroic painting depicting the victory of French armies against Muslims became prevalent. Convulsionists of Tangier, which was done by Delacroix, depicts the Aïssaouas, which is a Muslim brotherhood as a dangerous crowd of fanatics. Such works depicted the Muslim culture as a culture with barbarism coupled with cruelty and savagery (Rebecca para 16).
Critical Analysis of Oriental Women as Portrayed in the Arabian Nights
The Arabian night is a collection of tales that revolve around the king sultan Shahrayar and his wife, Scheherazade. Most of the women character in this story confirms the existence of sexual orientalism among Arabian women. Some of the oriental characters they portray include infidelity, uncontrollable lust, orgies, and blackmailing for sex. These forms of sexual oriental among women have been explained further below as they exist in the Arabian nights
Infidelity
Infidelity is the act of unfaithfulness among couples. The Muslim religion dominates the Arabian nations. According to Muslim traditions and cultures, infidelity is the tenth greatest sin in Islam, and so couples are expected to be faithful to one another. However, in the middle of such strictness, some partners are still not faithful to their partners. The results of infidelity are always divorce or disjointed families, or in the worst-case scenario, a partner can kill his or her marriage partner out of rage and anger. Though not always expected, infidelity exists among women, something that fills their partners with rage and anger, and they consequently kill their female partners.
There are several instances in the Arabian nights’ story which reveal infidelity among female characters. A first instance in the story is when Shahzman finds his wife sleeping with a cook. This happened when Shahzman was preparing to set out for a journey to his brother, sultan Shahrayar’s palace (Wiggin et al. pg 2). And it left him wondering if this happened while he had not set out for his journey, meaning it would have been done on a routine basis to make the cook assume his position in his estate. This further filled Shahzman with rage and anger, and he killed both his wife and the cook. While at his brother’s palace, shahzaman exempted himself from the hunting party and remained behind while the king sultan Shahrayar set out on a hunting trip. And in the morning, he witnessed his brother’s wife Scheherazade engaging in a sexual act with Mas Ud. Scheherazade thought no one was seeing her, and so together with her party stormed the private quarters (Wiggin et al. pg 6). Her party contained twenty slave girls in which ten were white and ten were black. When these slaves girls removed their clothes, Shahzman realized that the ten dark ones were not slave girls, but they were ten male slaves dressed in the same cloths as the girls. The ten male slaves mounted the ten slave girls while Scheherazade called out for her lover Mas Ud who climbed down a tree.
Shahzman found a little relief from this since he thought if all these could happen right in sultan Shahrayar’s palace with all the power and wealth that Shahrayar had, so he made a resolution to live a stress-free life. His brother from the hunting trip insisted on knowing the origin of the rejuvenation Shahzman had in which Shahzman disclosed to the sultan how the sultan’s wife had been unfaithful to the sultan. The sultan was interested in establishing the truth behind this in which he staged a hunting trip. Upon setting of darkness in the night, they sneaked back into the palace and in the morning sited at the same spot where Shahzman sat the other time they witnessed the arrival of the queen together with her party, and they performed the same act without realizing that they are being watched again.
Can go to greater lengths in achieving their sexual desire
Arabian women have been portrayed as individuals who can go into extra lengths in forcing other people into making love to them. As illustrated by the woman at the shore who was guarded by the demon, she threatened Shahzman and his brother sultan Shahrayar to make love to her and fulfill her desire, or else she will wake up the sleeping demon (Wiggin et al. pg 10). Additionally, Shahrazad also threatened to report her father the vizier to the king in the event that the vizier opted not to take her to the king. Her father was just performing his noble task of protecting his daughter because he knew the same routine applied to everyone was also applicable to his daughter, and since he was the one in charge of killing these girls each morning, it was to be a shame to kill his own daughter.
Uncontrollable lust
Arabian women also portray signs of having uncontrollable lust. These women have a strong sexual drive that pushes them to cheat on their partners. Considering the Arabian nights’ story, there are several instances in which the women character in the story display uncontrollable sexual desire. The first instance is where Shahzman’s wife opts to sleep with one of their cooks, yet still, Shahzman himself was still around and had not set out for his journey. The second instance is where the woman who emerged from the large glass chest along the shore demanded Shahzman and his brother Shahrayar to make love to her, or she will wake up the demon who was asleep next to her (Wiggin et al. pg 10). Considering how petrified they were, the two of them granted the woman her wish in which they made love to her and satisfied her need from the eldest to the youngest. Apparently, they learned that they were not the first to do this to her; she had slept with other ninety-eight men, all of which she took their rings as evidence.
Sultan Shahrayar and his brother’s rings made the woman’s ring collection to reach 100. This has been going right in front of the demon’s eyes, and he had never realized. This further filled Shahrayar with rage and made him hate women so much that he vowed to make love to a single woman each night of his life and kill her in the morning. Further, the vizier’s daughter, Shahrazad, also exhibited uncontrollable lust when she used all the powers in her disposal, including coercing her father into submitting her to the king to spend the night with her. She knew she risked losing her life the next morning, but still, she just wanted to do this. The vizier, who was her father, tried to tell talk her out of it, but she was determined to achieve her desire and threatened to report her father to the king if her father didn’t take her to the king.
Orgies
Normally orgies are sex sessions involving more than two participants. This commonly practiced in Arabian countries. As recently confirmed by an Arabian prince dying at his penthouse from a drug-fueled orgy (Godis Messy para 2). This act has been identified in several Arabian nations such as Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait among other nations, and it is normally performed in well-established hotel rooms and in residential. Probably this has been a culture that has existed for a long period of time as also exhibited by the Arabian night’s story. Orgies in the Arabian night story majorly involved sultan Shahrayar’s wife, Scheherazade. Scheherazade had a party of ten slave girls and ten male slaves, together with Mas Ud, whom they engaged in group sex. This was first witnessed by Shahzman when he exempted himself from the hunting party, and later confirmed the same act together with his brother when they faked the hunting party and later sneaked back to the city at night (Wiggin et al. pg 9). Considering how old the Arabian nights is, it confirms that this act had been in existence for a quite a long period of time among the Arabian women.
The portrayal of the royal queens
A royal queen should be someone who appreciates order with a little bit of class within the society. However, the Arabian nights’ story has portrayed royal queens as cheap, easy-going, and do not appreciates the existing order within the society. This is illustrated by Sultan Shahrayar’s wife Scheherazade engaging in a sexual act among slaves. Her sexual partner, mas ud, even had power over in which he called her a slut before engaging in their usual activities (Wiggin et al. pg 8). Additionally, considering how much power Shahzman had in society, her wife should have exhibited the standards of a queen, but she didn’t. She chose to sleep with just a cook while her husband, Shahzman was still around
Conclusion
The Arabian night is exquisite literature that illustrates several themes that exist within the society. The story also outlines the differential cultural values that exist between the west and the east. By this, it confirms some of the sexual orientals that exist among Arabian women. It outlines the infidelity that is exhibited by these women as well as the uncontrollable lust and orgies that exist within these communities. Both king Shahrayar’s wife and Shahzman’s wife confirms this infidelity claims by engaging in sexual activities with individuals who are not their husbands. Scheherazade sleeps with Mas Ud, who was a slave, and Shahzman’s wife sleeps with a cook. These infidelities end by the death of the two women and mark the beginning of even a greater calamity to the society in which the king would sleep with different ladies each night and kill them in the morning, causing agony in the community. Additionally, by these two royal queens engaging in infidelity with low-class individuals, they lowered the standards of royal queens.
From the story, it is evident that Arabian women can go into greater lengths into achieving their sexual desire, as exhibited by the woman guarded by the demon at the shore. She had engaged in sexual activities by ninety-eight other men right in front of the demon without the demon noticing this. The same was in king Shahrayar’s wife’s case. She was engaging in sex out of her marriage right at the palace. However, it demands a lot of critical thinking and braveness for women to stand up for good values within the society as exhibited by the vizier’s daughter conquering of the king and to deliberate the community from daily deaths of innocent ladies.
References
Rebecca S. “Orientalism – Concepts & Styles.” The Art Story, 2018, www.theartstory.org/movement/orientalism/history-and-concepts/#beginnings_header. Accessed 2019.
Shatz, Adam. “‘Orientalism,’ Then and Now.” The New York Review of Books, 20 May 2019, www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/05/20/orientalism-then-and-now/.
Godis Messy. “39-Year-Old Arab Prince Dies at a Sex and Drugs Orgy.” Lipstick Alley, 2019, www.lipstickalley.com/threads/39-year-old-arab-prince-dies-at-a-sex-and-drugs-orgy.2529341/.
Top of Form
Wiggin, Kate D. S, Nora A. Smith, and Maxfield Parrish. The Arabian Nights. , 2019. Internet resource.
Said, Edward W. “Orientalism: western conceptions of the Orient. 1978.” Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin 115 (1995).