Shahryār

This is a list of characters in ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ''The Arabian Nights''), the classic, medieval collection of Middle-Eastern folk tales.

Characters in the frame story

Scheherazade

Scheherazade or Shahrazad ( fa, شهرزاد}, ''Šahrzād'', or , ) is the legendary Persian queen who is the storyteller and narrator of ''The Nights''. She is the daughter of the kingdom's vizier and the older sister of Dunyazad.

Against her father's wishes, she marries King Shahryar, who has vowed that he will execute a new bride every morning. For 1,001 nights, Scheherazade tells her husband a story, stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger. This forces the King to keep her alive for another day so that she could resume the tale at night.

The name derives from the Persian ''šahr'' () and ''-zâd'' (); or from the Middle-Persian ''čehrāzād'', wherein ''čehr'' means 'lineage' and ''āzād'', 'noble' or 'exalted' (i.e. 'of noble or exalted lineage' or 'of noble appearance/origin'),

Dunyazad

Dunyazad ( fa, دنیازاد, ''Dunyāzād''; aka Dunyazade, Dunyazatde, Dinazade, or Dinarzad) is the younger sister of Queen Scheherazade. In the story cycle, it is she who—at Scheherazade's instruction—initiates the tactic of cliffhanger storytelling to prevent her sister's execution by Shahryar. Dunyazad, brought to her sister's bedchamber so that she could say farewell before Scheherazade's execution the next morning, asks her sister to tell one last story. At the successful conclusion of the tales, Dunyazad marries Shah Zaman, Shahryar's younger brother.

She is recast as a major character as the narrator of the "Dunyazadiad" segment of John Barth's novel '' Chimera''.

Scheherazade's father

Scheherazade's father, sometimes called Jafar ( fa, جعفر; ar, جَعْفَر, ''jaʿfar''), is the vizier of King Shahryar. Every day, on the king's order, he beheads the brides of Shahryar. He does this for many years until all the unmarried women in the kingdom have either been killed or run away, at which point his own daughter Scheherazade offers to marry the king.

The vizier tells Scheherazade the ''Tale of the Bull and the Ass'', in an attempt to discourage his daughter from marrying the king. It does not work, and she marries Shahryar anyway. At the end of the 1,001 nights, Scheherazade's father goes to Samarkand where he replaces Shah Zaman as sultan.

The treacherous sorcerer in Disney's ''Aladdin'', Jafar, is named after this character.

Shahryar

Shahryar ( fa, شهریار, ''Šahryār''; also spelt Shahriar, Shariar, Shahriyar, Schahryar, Sheharyar, Shaheryar, Shahrayar, Shaharyar, or Shahrear), which is pronounced /''Sha ree yaar''/ in Persian, is the fictional Persian Sassanid King of kings who is told stories by his wife, Scheherazade. He ruled over a Persian Empire extended to India, over all the adjacent islands and a great way beyond the Ganges as far as China, while Shahryar's younger brother, Shah Zaman ruled over Samarkand.

In the frame-story, Shahryar is betrayed by his wife, which makes him believe that all women will, in the end, betray him. So every night for three years, he takes a wife and has her executed the next morning, until he marries Scheherazade, his vizier’s beautiful and clever daughter. For 1,001 nights in a row, Scheherazade tells Shahryar a story, each time stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger, thus forcing him to keep her alive for another day so that she can complete the tale the next night. After 1,001 stories, Scheherazade tells Shahryar that she has no more stories for him. Fortunately, during the telling of the stories, Shahryar has grown into a wise ruler and rekindles his trust in women.

The word ''šahryâr'' (Persian: ) derives from the Middle Persian ''šahr-dār'', 'holder of a kingdom' (i.e. 'lord, sovereign, king').

Shah Zaman

Shah Zaman or Schazzenan ( fa, شاهزمان}, ''Šāhzamān'') is the Sultan of Samarkand (aka Samarcande) and brother of Shahryar. Shah Zaman catches his first wife in bed with a cook and cuts them both in two. Then, while staying with his brother, he discovers that Shahryar's wife is unfaithful. At this point, Shah Zaman comes to believe that all women are untrustworthy and he returns to Samarkand where, as his brother does, he marries a new bride every day and has her executed before morning.

At the end of the story, Shahryār calls for his brother and tells him of Scheherazade's fascinating, moral tales. Shah Zaman decides to stay with his brother and marries Scheherazade's beautiful younger maiden sister, Dunyazad, with whom he has fallen in love. He is the ruler of Tartary from its capital Samarkand.

Characters in Scheherazade's stories

Ahmed

Prince Ahmed ( ar, أحمد, ''ʾaḥmad'', 'thank, praise') is the youngest of three sons of the Sultan of the Indies. He is noted for having a magic tent that would expand so as to shelter an army, and contract so that it could go into one's pocket. Ahmed travels to Samarkand city and buys an apple that can cure any disease if the sick person smells it.

Ahmed rescues the Princess Paribanou ( fa, پریبانو}, ''Parībānū''; also spelled Paribanon or Peri Banu), a peri (female jinn).

Aladdin

Aladdin ( ar, علاء الدين, ) is one of the most famous characters from ''One Thousand and One Nights'' and appears in the famous tale of ''Aladdin and The Wonderful Lamp''. Despite not being part of the original Arabic text of ''The Arabian Nights'', the story of Aladdin is one of the best known tales associated with that collection, especially following the eponymous 1992 Disney film.

Composed of the words ( ar, , label=none, 'exaltation (of)') and ( ar, , label=none, 'the religion'), the name ''Aladdin'' essentially means 'nobility of the religion'.

Ali Baba

Ali Baba ( ar, , ''ʿaliy bābā'') is a poor wood cutter who becomes rich after discovering a vast cache of treasure, hidden by evil bandits.

Ali Shar

Ali Shar ( ar, علي شار) is a character from ''Ali Shar and Zumurrud'' who inherits a large fortune on the death of his father but very quickly squanders it all. He goes hungry for many months until he sees Zumurrud on sale in a slave market. Zumurrud gives Ali the money to buy her and the two live togethe