Talk:One Thousand and One Nights

Names as Arabic or Persian

I am currently engaged with an argument with an IP over at Scheherazade about the language tagging of the name Scheherazade. The article previously had it tagged as Arabic, but an IP changed it to Persian. This was reverted by another editor. Either the same or a different IP (the address keeps changing) then changing the name to no language and upon my reverting, claimed that I must prove that the name is Arabic. I would appreciate some outside input on the matter.--Ermenrich (talk) 21:57, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

This article is a joke, exclusion, possibly politically motivated

Why is Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, etc EXCLUDED from the list once the list of the origins for the 1001 nights starts listing religions? Are those religious cultures assumed included by naming "India"? To mention one religious culture while excluding others is a glaring omission of facts.

The above (unsigned) post is most strange - there is no "list of religions" in the article - nor is "India" a religion anyway. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 07:29, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

Requested move 8 July 2019

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved (non-admin closure) ~SS49~ {talk} 01:37, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

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Shouldn't One Thousand and One Nights redirect to Arabian Nights? Since this is English Wikipedia and Arabian Nights is what people call it in English, plus One Thousand and One Nights just sounds weird. Beevest (talk) 01:09, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

One Thousand and One Nights → Arabian Nights – Arabian Nights is what it's called in English, and this is English Wikipedia. NightBag10 (talk) 16:29, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Definitely not! Strictly not even (quite) the same thing! --Soundofmusicals (talk) 00:22, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

• No, uh uh, wait just a darn minute..., One Thousand and One Nights is one of the most famous and honored names in literature. Randy Kryn (talk) 00:32, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose and speedy close ridiculous. In ictu oculi (talk) 09:36, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose " just sounds weird" isn't a valid RM argument, especially when One Thousand and One Nights is an extremely well-known title in English. Time to turn off Disney's Aladdin, despite its catchy opening number Ribbet32 (talk) 21:21, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Requesting wider attention

I felt article Islamic_literature is in bit of neglect so I added my note on talk page there, requesting to take note of Talk:Islamic_literature#Article_review. If possible requesting copy edit support. Suggestions for suitable reference sources at Talk:Islamic_literature is also welcome.

Posting message here too for neutrality sake

Thanks and greetings

Bookku (talk) 08:00, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

On the Persian Origins of the Nights

In all, the article is quite judicious in its subsections in conveying the overwhelming pre-Islamic Persian origin of the work (a direct translation of Hezār Afsān or “1000 Tales”), as reflected in its literary style, tales, settings and characters (Shahrazad, Shahryar, Dunyazad, Ja'far, Zumurrud, Shah Zaman, Sindbad, Morgiana, King Yunan, Khusrau, Shirin, etc.). It laters expounds on the idea that many of the tales were superficially modified to include Islamic names and settings instead of pre-Islamic Persian ones, and even many of the Abbasid-era characters who were later added are Persians or take place in Persia (Ja'far al-Barmaki, Ali Shar, Prince Ali, Prince Ahmed, etc.). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Thousand_and_One_Nights_characters

Indeed, the Nights is reminiscent of the vast compendium of Persian secular literature and poetry which has no equivalent in Arabic language literature, except for apparently this work (which again, was originally a translation). This is not, however, reflected in the introduction, which makes use of the imprecise term “Middle Eastern” (its only incidence in the article) and goes so far as to ascribe Greek, Turkish, and even Jewish pedigrees to the tales, which has no evidential basis or justification in any scholarship and, again, is not expounded on in the remainder of the Wikipedia article (indeed upon closer examination of the reference, the Marzolph book merely uses the same sentence without an evidence or justification.) Readers with even a rudimentary understanding of the region’s demographic history are immediately struck by the fact that Turkic tribes had not even migrated from Central Asia into the Near East when the original Persian and Abbasid versions were composed, and that an elusive Jewish presence in the Nights is nothing short of inane.

A more reasonable introduction would address the issue of the English moniker “Arabian Nights” being regarded as a misnomer, and in doing so acknowledge the disproportionate Persian provenance and nature of the Nights, which is addressed thoroughly using contemporary primary sources throughout the rest of the Wikipedia article. If the moderators views relocating the etymologies of the two main characters Shahrzadeh and Shahryar from the synopsis section to the introduction (where they are first mentioned) or questioning flagrantly unfounded claims of Turkish, Greek, Jewish presence in the Nights as “chauvinism”, I encourage them to reexamine their own biases in the way in which they have superficially conceived this piece of literature--removed from Orientalist prism of Western historiography.