Arabian Nights Puzzle 1000 Pieces – Aladdin and Princess Jasmine by Kürti Andrea

The puzzle Arabian Nights or “One Thousand and One Nights”, from the original title in Arabic: alf laila wa laila (ألف ليلة وليلة), is undoubtedly the most famous and well-known classic of Eastern literature ever.

King Shahriyar, disappointed and enraged by his wife’s betrayal, conceives a mortal hatred for all women. Because of this, he orders the vizier, who is also Shahrazad’s father, to bring him a virgin every night: he would spend the night with her and the following morning order her execution. The massacre continues for three years until Shahrazad, beautiful, wise, and courageous, offers to spend the night with the king, saying to her father: “Either I remain alive, or I will be the ransom of Muslim virgins and the cause of their liberation from the hands of the king and yours.”

For a thousand and one nights, Shahrazad, to avoid being put to death by the vengeful king, keeps the sovereign’s curiosity aroused with her extraordinary tales, sometimes strung together like links on a necklace, sometimes locked inside each other like a system of Chinese boxes. When Shahrazad stops telling, King Shahriyar has forgotten his ancient hatred of women for her sake; time and imagination have reconciled him with life. Shahrazad has saved herself and many more than a thousand and one girls .

For the Arab world, Shahrazad is the symbol of the strength of intelligence , the charm of words, the power of seduction , and in this sense, she represents anything but the model of the sensual and passive odalisque dear to the Western imagination. In reality, she is an active, skilled, astute woman, the architect of her own salvation and that of other women, capable of arousing the love of the sovereign and keeping that love alive within him.