The tales of the Nights are masterpieces of the art of storytelling, imaginative and extravagant while representing an intimate record of the medieval Islamic world. How true is this statement with regard to the stories you have read?
... there is no structure to the Nights and it therefore cannot be considered to be a masterpiece. I would strongly disagree with this view as I believe that the lack of formal structure adds to the excitement of the tales. One never knows what to expect, and the Nights seem to have no boundaries to which it feels compelled to stay within. Other critics say that the story is fine for children, but lacks maturity and appeal to the adult population. One can see where this idea comes from, with the unrelenting fantastical element to the tales. One immediately thinks of the beast from Sinbad the Sailor, or the Jinni from Aladdin, and it is easy to dismiss the Nights as aimed purely as children. Again I would disagree with this view entirely. The Nights has a universal appeal and with it comes a form of escapism. One only has to think of the modern day success of Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling to realise that it is not only children that can enjoy the world of fantasy! Although the content makes no apologies for relying heavily on this mystical element, there is a moral aspect to the tales which applies to each and every one of us. Another reason why some critics play down the idea that the Nights is a masterpiece is because it is not written in classical language. This is unlike other classics such as Shakespeare or the Iliad. It is certainly true that the tales are not written in this style, for the most part anyway. This is why many Arabists do not consider it a masterpiece. However I would say that the fact that it is written in simple language gives weight to the argument that this collection is in fact a universal classic. The simple fact is that most of the intended audience did not understand highly classical language. It is a collection for the people. So having looked at the arguments, we have proved that the Nights can justifiably be considered to be a masterpiece in the art of storytelling. We will now consider whether the Nights are indeed imaginative and extravagant. It is fair to say that to call the Nights imaginative is a huge understatement. The tales stimulate every sense by describing in intricate detail the scene of the action. Just one of the plethora of examples can be seen below; At this sight my wonder redoubled and I remembered a story I had heard aforetime of pilgrims and travelers, how in a certain island dwelleth a huge bird, called the "roc," which feedeth its young on elephants, and I was certified that the dome which caught my sight was none other than a roc's egg. (Sinbad the Sailor – the Second Voyage) The Nights is beyond rules and knows no boundaries. The imagination of the author is encapsulated in almost every sentence. The senses are somewhat amplified by the vivid descriptions and exhilarating plots. The tales manage to mix elements of mysticism and fantasy with that of humour and wit, and it does so superbly. It is sometimes east to forget just what creative expertise are displayed in the Nights. An extravagant and lavish theme runs concurrently with the imaginative and creative thread of the stories. The tales are full of superlatives and extremes. We often hear of the “most beautiful girl” or the “most precious gems”. This adds to the rich flavour of the stories and can certainly be described as extravagant. As for me, I looked into the bed of the stream aforesaid and saw therein great plenty of rubies, and great royal pearls and all kinds of jewels and precious stones, which were as gravel in the bed of the rivulets that ran through the fields, and the sands sparkled and glittered with gems and precious ores. (Sinbad the Sailor – the Sixth Voyage) There are some however, that criticise the Nights, claiming that it is not imaginative as it seems, as many of the themes are euphemistically said to be “borrowed” from other cultures, and are therefore not imaginative at all. There is evidence to support this claim. For example the ability to communicate with animals, as seen in The Merchant and His Wife, is a theme which can be seen in Ancient Indian, Greek and Roman works from the past. The Sanskrit “Panchatantra” written around the sixth century featured a number of such tales. It also had moral messages embedded in the stories, which again is similar to the Nights. However this argument does not really hold water. The so-called Theory of Plundering, in which stories are taken from other cultures, is not exclusive to the Arab world. Nor is it one way traffic, for example traces of the Arabian Nights can be found in texts of the Italian Giovanni Sercambi in the fourteenth century. This was probably the result of travel to the East. We can now justifiably say that the Nights is both imaginative and extravagant. The final part of our argument will ask does the Nights represent an intimate record of the medieval Islamic world? With scholars such as Burton acknowledging that the stories in the Nights span many centuries, it is hard to answer our question in simple terms. One point of view is that the Nights is in fact a social history of medieval Islamic times. There are references to a whole host of historical aspects, from dress to hierarchy, and from sex to religion. We have an interesting split between the high life and the low life in medieval Islamic times. On the high end of the scale we are told of opulent palaces and beautiful princesses and on the other end we hear of beggars and thieves (Ali Baba and the forty thieves springs to mind). Although fantastical in nature, the Nights do provide us with the by-product of social history. On the street level we gain a valuable insight in to what the masses did for entertainment. We hear stories of snake charmers and market vendors, and appropriately story tellers. From this we can find out what the ordinary people did in their daily lives. Information on this area at this time is very thin on the ground, relative to the medieval West. We also get valuable information on employment. We have the story of the Porter, the Cob...