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Shahrayar

King of India and Indochina. He is a towering knight, a daring, invincible champion, and a respected ruler. When Shahrayar is betrayed by one of his wives, he judges that all women are untrustworthy. His marriage to Shahrazad is the central relationship in the collection.

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Shahrazad

Daughter of Shahrayar’s vizier and the older sister to Dinarzad. Shahrazad marries Shahrayar to save women from a terrible fate. She is an exceptional storyteller, a highly educated woman, and a cunning schemer.

Read an in-depth analysis of Shahrazad.

Shahzaman

Shahrayar’s younger brother who is king of Samarkand. Summoned to his brother’s palace, he inadvertently learns of his wife’s sexual exploits with a cook in his kitchen, which leads him to kill them both and descend into despair and ill health.

Dinarzad

Shahrazad’s younger sister and the daughter of Shahrayar’s vizier. Dinarzad prompts the stories that keep her sister, Shahrazad, alive.

Ja’far

A vizier who appears in several of the stories. He solves the mystery in “The Story of the Three Apples,” and he aids the caliph in “The Story of the Slave-Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan.” Unlike the character in the popular Aladdin movie, Ja’far is a good man and a devoted servant.

The Hunchback

A comic buffoon who reeks of wine and plays a tambourine. He initiates the cycle of stories about the Christian broker, the steward, the Jewish physician, and the tailor.

Caliph Harun al-Rashid

The ruler in several of the stories. For example, in “The Story of the Three Apples,” he orders Ja’far to find the person who killed the young woman.

The Barber

A well-educated yet too talkative man who annoys and then stalks the tailor. He narrates a series of six stories about his six brothers.

Nur al-Din Ali al-Misri 

The vizier of Basra, brother to Shams al-Din, and father to Badr al-Din. 

Shams al-Din Muhammad

The vizier of Cairo, brother to Nur al-Din, father to Sit al-Husn. Shams al-Din wants his daughter to marry his brother’s son, and when he has the chance to arrange their happy reunion, he lovingly does so.

Badr al-Din 

Son of vizier Nur al-Din, beloved of Shams al-Din’s daughter, Sit al-Husn, and father to ‘Ajib.

Sit al-Husn

Daughter of vizier Shams al-Din, beloved of Nur al-Din, and mother to ‘Ajib.

‘Ajib

The young son of Badr al-Din and Sit al-Husn, whose compassion reunites to families long torn apart by an old bitter feud.

King Yunan

A king who suffers from leprosy and is later fooled by his jealous vizier’s tale to behead the loyal sage, Duban.

Duban

A wise and well-educated sage who cures the king’s leprosy but is murdered when the king’s vizier plots against him.

Lady Zubaida’s Maid

A maid who sneaks her lover into the palace in a chest. On their wedding night, she realizes her husband hasn’t washed his hands after eating a ragout, so she cuts his thumbs off.

Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Bakkar 

A young man who falls desperately in love with a caliph’s servant and concubine, Shams al-Nahar. Despite his friends’ efforts, he and Shams al-Nahar are doomed to never be together.

Shams al-Nahar 

A slave and concubine of the caliph who falls in love with Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Bakkar. Believing she’s been unfaithful with her beloved Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Bakkar, her husband imprisons her. She dies a prisoner of the palace. 

Anis al-Jalis

A slave girl in love with Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan, the son of a kind vizier.

Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan

The son of a kind vizier. Nur al-Din inherits great wealth, but foolishly loses it all. At one point, he even sells his beloved Anis al-Jalis. 

Jullanar

An exiled sea creature who marries a land-bound king. Jullanar gives birth to a son, Badr, who will one day inherit his father’s throne. 

Sayih

Jullanar’s brother. Without permission, Sayih takes Badr back to the sea soon after Badr is born. He later helps Badr marry the sea king’s daughter, Jauhara.

Badr

Jullanar’s son. Badr wishes to marry the sea king’s most beautiful daughter, Jauhara, but the sea king refuses at first. 

Queen Lab

An evil sorceress who rules over the City of Magicians. Lab turned all of the city’s inhabitants into animals, with the exception of one old man. Lab enchants Badr and keeps him as a prisoner for some time. She is defeated by Jullanar and her family, and Badr is set free, able to marry his beloved Jauhara and rule as king.

Jauhara

The sea king’s most beautiful daughter and Badr’s wife and queen.

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