The Arabian Nights is a short story collection that originated in the Middle East but soon became popular worldwide for its stories. Not only has it spread in its original form, but many adaptations of it have been made, including movies and television shows. Over the years, many people have debated on the different aspects and translations of the Arabian Nights, and have come to the conclusion that there are many problematic things with it. Taking certain excerpts from the Arabian Night texts, they show the reader how The Arabian Nights actually has elements of sexism and racism integrated into it, which are both subtle and prominent.
Reading a paragraph from the Arabian Nights, “Then they sat down, took off their clothes, and suddenly there were ten slave-girls and ten black slaves dressed in the same clothes as the girls. Then the ten black slaves mounted the ten girls, while the lady called, “Mas’ud, Mas’ud!” and a black slave jumped from the tree to the ground, rushed to her, and, raising her legs, went between her thighs and made love to her [Haddawy 38]”, the text shows the underlying racial condescension towards the characters. The text refers to the black slaves without any gender specification. It was just assumed that the black slaves were men. The other slaves, probably presumed to be white, were women, and the black men were dressed up as women as well. This is problematic because every single slave who is sleeping with the king’s wife and all his mistresses has been explicitly said to be Black. The image this portrays is clearly derogatory because it tells the reader that Black individuals are lesser in value than fair coloured men. It is the fair coloured men in positions of power and it is the black men who are the slaves and being used by the women for infidelity. This villainizes the Black individuals and makes them out to be “sinners” in the story. This gender and colour distinction comes across as extremely racially biassed and ignorant. Not only that, but it is degrading for both women and men of all colours to be written about like this.
It is degrading for women because in both circumstances, the reader can observe that the one who committed the act of infidelity was the wife. The women in the story have been put across as people who are evil and destined to cheat on men. The text says “How will it be and what will happen behind my back when I go to visit my brother in India? No. Women are not to be trusted” [Haddawy 33]. The generalisation of women and saying that all women are not to be trusted is an incorrect notion that should not be encouraged, but it is further delved into when the king’s brother’s wife also ends up committing infidelity.
The women are nothing but tools for the story to have a forward moving plot, and the text clearly shows the viewer that the women are inferior beings to the men by how they are treated. They are portrayed as foolish, sex seeking animals, witch having no goals or ambitions except to sleep with every man except her husband, which, really, tells the readers much more about the husband’s capabilities than the wife. Both women are clearly shown as stupid and idiotic, with not even an iota of intelligence considering the fact that neither of them particularly did anything to hide their infidelity except for basic disguises, like dressing up men in girls’ clothes and hiding in a tent. Not only one, but two kings having gone years without noticing these excursions happening right under their noses and still having been able to successfully rule an entire kingdom is baffling.
It is almost as if the kings are entitled to have loyal and faithful wives, but they are not held accountable to the same rules when they can have multiple mistresses and wives. This degrading treatment puts across a message of how it is acceptable for men to treat women this way, and how they deserve abuse because they are beneath men. Especially the scene where the king kills his wife and the cook she cheated on him with, by throwing them in a trench. He is portrayed as someone who is acting morally right, and that the wife and the cook deserved to be killed. It is obvious that is not the case, as they do not deserve death for committing that sin, even though it is a grave sin. This ruthless killing of the wife is just a plot point for the main story. We get no information about the wife except on her sexual escapades whereas we get tons of information about the King. Even though he is the main character, you can see the same happening when he goes to meet his brother, when you get background and relevant information about his brother, but the only thing conveyed about the wife is how she has a passionate orgy with black slaves.
This also delves into the power dynamics that exist within the community, and between royalty and common people. Murder was an act punishable by death as well, so technically this makes the King a hypocrite for not abiding by his own laws. The text shows us how the Royalty are exempt from many of the rules and laws they lay down by themselves. This was prominent quite a bit in that era, but when you think about it, it is a reflection of how our modern day world runs as well. Taking into consideration how these days politicians, people of power and business conglomerates act, with their entitled attitudes and hypocritical views, can we really call ourselves better than how kingdoms were run back then? Especially considering the condescension modernity holds to past Islamic communities?
The Arabian Nights, though one of the most well known collections of folk tales in this day and age, is still with its own package of problematic themes, and many of these aspects have even been heightened by translators, especially those from Britain and France. The translators made the prose more sexually explicit and increased the levels of racism towards not only Black people, but also Jews, Persians and many more ethnicities and cultures. It is evident that many of the details in the modern day The Arabian Nights have either been forged or unnecessarily been increased in severity. The Arabian Nights will always be popular, but keeping in mind its wide outreach and influence, it is important for people to know the adverse impacts it has had and can have on gender and race.
