Western literature has enclosed the Oriental woman within two main patterns.The first is the submissive one, who is isolated from the outside world. Women in this pattern appear to have no rights as they are always held in harems, and men have all the rights to divorce or marry another wife. They are the mere object of pleasure that can be sold, bought or given as presents. The other pattern is the vicious woman, who is always connected with black magic and who disturbs the overall atmosphere of the literary work. The influence of Galland's Arabian Nights on the Western’s view of the Muslim woman is significant. The Arabian Nights helps in shaping image in the Western imagination, presenting her new and lasting image in the West.
Women in…show more content… In The History of Saddyq, Master of the Horse(look at the page no.), the vicious vizier out of jealousy asks his daughter Hoschendan to avenge from Saddyq, because he is the king’s favors him for his honesty and sincerity. She answers: “O my father, cease to afflict yourself; if you would absolutely remove Saddyq from the king’s favour, you need only allow me to do it”. Hoschendan begins her plot, and convinces Saddyq to love her, and then she asks him to kill the king’s favorite horse. He kills the horse, and when the king asks him about the horse, he lies for the first time in his life for her sake, losing the king’s confidence, but later the king forgives him. In The History of Prince Maliknasi, the Coja’s * wife is divorced three times, and needs a mohallel*, so she married the prince and betrays her husband, and then and betrays the prince, and escapes with his slave, then betrays the slave with prince Guayas, who after asking him to kill the slave, betrays him with one of his…show more content… In his essay Images of the Oriental Women in The Arabian Nights, Abdul-Jabbar Jassim answers that these questions have given rise too much controversy. He explains that the Egyptian author Suhair Al- Kalamawi says that, “these attributes are universal and could be found among women folk everywhere and anytime, so it is natural to find such qualities among the Oriental woman.” However, she considers that The Arabian Nights and The Turkish Tales have exaggerated too much in attributing these traits to women. Bahjat Al-Hadithi argues that, the Abased society of The Arabian Nights is a multicultural society. Persians, Turks, Byzantine and Indians live side by side with the Arabs. He adds “these peoples were known for their indulgence in pleasure and immoral practices especially, among female slaves.” Thus, these tales present the age that it was set in, and it may represent any women, as they are not exclusive to the Arab