Beyond Shahrazad: Feminist Portrayals of Women in the One Thousand and One Nights

“Scheherazade and the Sultan” by the Iranian painter Sani ol Molk (1849–1856).

Shahrazad, the intelligent and cunning heroine of the One Thousand and One Nights (or The Arabian Nights), has been recognized in recent years as a feminist literary figure, a woman who uses her abilities to save not just her own life, but the lives of other women.