fromThe Thousand and One Nights: The Second

Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor

Persia (today’s Iran and Iraq), Traditional

The History of the Tales

The Thousand and One Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights, is one of the world’s most famous and beloved collections of legends and folktales. The stories, most of which are believed to be Persian, Indian or Arabian in origin, probably evolved over many centuries of storytelling before they were written down. The earliest known collection was Persian; the collection was translated into Arabic during the 800s. During the early 1700s, Antoine Galland’s twelve-volume French translation introduced Europeans to the tales.

Stories Within a Story

The stories in The Thousand and One Nights are loosely tied together by a frame story. The frame story features a woman named Scheherazade, who has been condemned to die by her husband Shahriyar, a cruel sultan. The sultan discovered his first wife was unfaithful and killed her. Acting out of hatred for all women, he married a new wife each day and then killed her. Scheherazade chose to marry the sultan, having devised a scheme to save herself. The night before she is to die, she tells him a fascinating tale, cleverly leaving it unfinished. The sultan, burning with curiosity, postpones her execution for thirty-six hours so that she can tell him how the story ends. The following evening, Scheherazade once again tells a tale ending in a cliffhanger, and the sultan again postpones her death. The cycle is repeated for a thousand and one nights, at the end of which the sultan lifts Scheherazade’s death sentence. They live happily ever after.

The Seven Voyages of Sindbad

One of the best-known series of tales in The Thousand and One Nights recounts the adventures of Sindbad the Sailor. The first tale opens in the city of Baghdad. In Sindbad’s time, Baghdad was a thriving city whose merchants traded with kingdoms in many parts of the ancient world. To set out on a trading expedition, sailors traveled down the Tigris River from Baghdad to Basra, a port near where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers meet and flow into the Persian Gulf, a body of water east of the Arabian Peninsula.

Name: ______

English 6, Davidson, Period: ______

Date Due: ______

Reading Guide from A Thousand and One Nights:

The Second Voyage of Sindbad

1.Why does Sindbad long to visit distant cities and islands?

2.Briefly describe the roc and its egg. How do Sindbad’s descriptions help create a sense of suspense? (Be specific)

3.What does Sindbad’s plan of escape suggest about his character?

4.What does Sindbad do with his riches when he first returns home? Why might he take these actions?

5.Find 3 examples of hyperbole in the story.

6.Is Sindbad a hero? Why or why not?

7.Why is this an enduring tale? List at least 3 aspects of the story that account for its popularity.

8.Verisimilitude is a literary technique used by writers to create the illusion of reality, to make their stories believable. Often this is achieved by “eyewitness” accounts, such as Sindbad’s. At what points does Sindbad’s story seem grounded in fact? (List at least 2).

9.What examples of irony can you find in the story (at least 2)?

Vocabulary:

p. 453quest

jubilant

p. 454resigning

looming

fruitless

confounded

void

p. 455precipitous

repented

reeling

p. 456clamor

densely

p. 457curdling

sumptuous

mariner

Lit Terms:hyperbole

verisimilitude