Why are Arabian Nights set mostly in Persia?

score:9

The correct question would be "why is it called Arabian Nights". The answer is that this was a decision by the English translators, and has little to do with the original work. As explained in the second sentence of the wikipedia article you linked to.

Suppose someone would decide to translate the Song of Roland into English and give it the title "The Song of the French". Should we then ask why the work is mostly set in Spain?

One thing to keep in mind re. Persians is that the Abbasid court in Baghdad was located only a few dozen kilometers from where the (Persian) Sasanian court had been located earlier (and before that the Parthian and, for some time, the Seleucid court), in Ctesiphon. A story set in Baghdad, but several hundred years earlier, would automatically have been set in the Sasanian capital.

Jan 8176

📝 Was Jesus depicted as dark skinned during the beginning of Christianity
📝 What is this strange uniform?
📝 How did the king give land to new barons without taking it from the old ones?
📝 When was the last moment that Dutch, German and Swiss German were the same language?
📝 What was the internal Soviet reaction to the moon landing?
📝 The Battle of Britain
📝 Who were the first "businessmen" to rival the kings throughout the world?
📝 Who is this, probably royal, teenager?
📝 PhD dissertations from Nazi Germany
📝 Did Albert Einstein really receive this rejection letter from the University of Bern?
📝 How did lecturers magnify their voice in the days before amplification?
📝 What were the logistics of whaling in the 1800s?
📝 How did sailing technology improve during the Age of Sail?
📝 How were Kurds involved (or not) in the invasion of Normandy?
📝 What was the status of travelling perfomers in the Middle Ages (specifically, 13th century Germany)?
📝 Who first in human history has promoted equality rights of all people?
📝 What documented criteria (if any) did the CIA use to determine targets for political assassination during the Cold War?
📝 How widespread was astronomy in prehistoric times?
📝 Literacy in the classical world
📝 Major power shift in Gaul circa 350 B.C
📝 Is there any proof that Robin Hood existed?
📝 Sources for letters written during the Boer Wars?
📝 Yamato class 3rd ship?
📝 What happened to the colonial estates belonging to loyalists after the American Revolution?
📝 Did the Soviet Union protest against Italy building or acquiring submarines after WW2?
📝 Why didn't the Black Death made the peasants more desperate and more accepting of exploitation?
📝 In Scandinavia, was there a cultural continuity from Goths to Vikings or were they two different groups of people?
📝 Are there any Ancient Greek texts showing concern for the fate of their slaves?
📝 Who was the oldest recorded participant in a battle whom we know of?
📝 Did Ancient Egyptians in the 2nd millennium BC practice Astrology?

Source: stackoverflow.com

Travel Tips

Search Posts

📝 Why are Arabian Nights set mostly in Persia?
📝 Why are U.S. Northwestern metropolitan areas set back from the coast?
📝 Why are Germans referred to so differently in different languages?
📝 Why are the German and French languages so different?
📝 Why are so many metros underground? Isn't that more expensive than an elevated system?
📝 Why are many African nations poor?
📝 Why are military uniforms often flared or poofy above the knee?
📝 Why are many African-Americans in Mississippi concentrated in the northwestern area?
📝 Is there a historical explanation as to why the USA people are so litigious compared to the French?
📝 Why is this Latin text black but the Latin numerals are red?
📝 Why are there so many laws about eye injuries in the Code of Hammurabi?
📝 Why are the signatures on the United States Declaration of Independence structured as they are?
📝 Why did Persia adopt the movable-type printing so late?
📝 Why are the USA and Canada's states border so straight?
📝 Why are the French and Indian Wars / Seven Years' War not considered WW 1?
📝 Why are cereal grains so important to agriculture and civilization?
📝 Why was the northern boundary of the Mongol empire set where it was?
📝 Why are the majority of Dresden inhabitants atheists or agnostics?
📝 Why are some later Mayan scripts unintelligible to archaeologists, while earlier ones can be read?
📝 Why are most of the world's oldest buildings in Europe and not in the Fertile Crescent?
📝 Why were Germanic languages able to spread over much of northern Europe after 500BC? Did they mostly replace Celtic?
📝 Why are there so few twins in political history?
📝 Why are there no photorealistic paintings from the old days?
📝 Why are the Portuguese so obsessed with salted codfish?
📝 Why are the historical large cities in the southern US not the large cities in the South today?
📝 Why are most monarchies in Europe of German descent?
📝 Why are the ceilings so high in older houses?
📝 Why are Vikings singled out for raids in Britain and Ireland when records may indicate most raids were by local rulers?
📝 Why are only Homo Sapiens left?
📝 Why are some amphoras pointed on the bottom?

Why are Arabian Nights set mostly in Persia?

More post

Search Posts

Related post