Arabic Stories

My mind was somewhat blown if I’m being honest when I found out that the Arabic stories were made for entertainment purposes. Perhaps what shocked me the most actually is that they freely admit that the stories are for entertainment only. Many writes would create stories for entertainment purposes, for money, but to admit so would have been greedy. 

1001 Nights contains over 200 Arabic stories- pic from Google

I believe that the honesty regarding the origins of the stories is also what makes the stories so enjoyable. Knowing that these stories were meant for entertainment, you can go in with an open mind. The stories can be extremely short as well, but they pack an extreme amount of hilarity and fun in just a few sentences. 

Very few of the European stories that we read, as with the Jewish and Indian tales, allowed for a large amount of fun in the story, as many of the stories had a purpose, or a lesson they were attempting to teach. While the lessons varied anywhere from having faith in a higher power, to listening to your parents, the Arabic tales were just simple tales. 

The Arabic tales are closest to the African tales, as there is a huge cultural influence or each of the stories. It’s also important to have some knowledge about these cultures in order to understand the stories- such as with the Arabic tales, it’s important to know that the Arabic culture is extremely conservative. If you didn’t know, you would not be able to fully appreciate the story as it was meant to be enjoyed.