Scheherazade in Istanbul: A study of the popular Turkish TV series Binbir Gece

Abstract

One Thousand and One Nights is a composite, transnational work, consisting of popular stories originally transmitted orally within its embedded cultures and developed over several centuries. Ever since its translation into European languages in the nineteenth century, or perhaps even before, it has been adapted and appropriated into different forms and mediums and thus has reached different corners of the world. This project was inspired by the level of popularity of One Thousand and One Nights, often known as The Arabian Nights, in the world today. Although only a relatively small number of people might have read all the tales, we can safely assume that most people do have an idea of what the Nights are, whilst some could even name one or two films, series or cartoons that they think are based on the Nights. Indeed, only a very limited number of stories included in editions of the Nights have been adapted into films or TV series. There are two main characteristics of the Nights that help identify adaptations and adoptions in popular culture: embedded storytelling using a frame tale, and the ‘feminist’, emancipating heroine Scheherazade. The popular Turkish TV series Binbir Gece (One Thousand and One Nights) (2006–09), which this article focuses on, not only makes use of these two popular features; it also offers a fresh and contemporary adaptation of the frame story of Shah Shahriyar and Scheherazade and elements from many other tales from the Nights, such as the emphasis on the importance of education for women, or the evil of cunning women. After analysing the degree of adaptation of the frame story in this series, this article sheds light on its global reach, reception and popularity.