“The Queen had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by gone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred."
Shahryar was the angriest sultan west of the Indus. His queen had betrayed him, so he killed her and turned to revenge. Every day the Persian King would marry a new virgin, and every day he would send yesterday's wife to be beheaded. He had killed three thousand such women by the time he was introduced to Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter.
Scheherazade and Dinazade saw all this happening, for they lived in the palace with their father, the Sultan's vizier. Scheherazade, especially, was alarmed at the decimation of her sisters! She had to get close enough to carry out her plan; she would have to marry Shahryar. Dinazade grasped her scheme immediately and even agreed to help, but their father, one of whose duties was royal executioner, was not easy to convince.
Against her father's protestations, Scheherazade volunteered to spend one night with the King.
Once in the King's chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved sister, Dinazade, who had secretly been prepared to ask Scheherazade to tell a story during the long night. The King lay awake and listened with awe to Scheherazade's first story and asked for another, but Scheherazade said there was not time as dawn was breaking, and regretfully so, as the next story was even more exciting. On the 145th night, Shahryar looked at Scheherazade tenderly. On the 270th night, he dismissed the suggestion of an adventure tale, saying "Tonight my mind is more inclined to higher things and would rather hear words of wisdom from you."
The point is that slowly, very slowly, story by story, night after night, her tales softened his heart, dissolved his anger, and he was made whole. It took almost three years, but her plan worked. The King kept Scheherazade alive as he eagerly anticipated each new story, until, one thousand and one adventurous nights, and three sons later, the King had not only been entertained but wisely educated in morality and kindness by Scheherazade who became his Queen. The king was transformed; her sisters were saved, and Scheherazade's world became safe and lovely.
Scheherazade began life as a young vizier daughter whose miserable duty is to marry a ruthless king who beheads the virgins that he marries on a daily basis. She proposes to her father that she be the next victim with the aim of telling the king stories in which he will become so interested that he will be unwilling to execute her out of a wish to hear the end of the story, and in the end persuade the king to stop his horrible practice of killing his brides after the wedding night.
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