Iran
This entry was originally published in the World History Encyclopedia and was written by Joshua J. Mark. It is shared in line with the Encyclopedia’s policies under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Shahrazad (Scheherazade) – heroine of the One Thousand Nights and a Night who is married to the king Shahriyar. Shahriyar adopts a policy of marrying a virgin, spending a night with her, and executing her the next morning. Shahrazad preserves her life by telling the king a story their first night together but not finishing it. Shahriyar allows her to live so he can hear the ending. She continues this pattern for one thousand and one nights and so saves herself.