Sheherazade

INSPIRATIONAL, 9 Mar 2015

Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service

A cruel prince in 8th century Baghdad returned early from hunting and surprised his wife in the company of another man. He ordered both of them executed. He vowed that he would never let himself be betrayed by another woman, and married a new wife every day, and had her executed the next morning, so that she could never cheat on him.

When he married Sheherazade, she told him a fascinating story. Since the night was not yet over, she began another story, but left it unfinished at a suspenseful moment when morning came.

The prince thought, “I want to hear the end of this story. I will keep her for one more night, and then have her executed the next day.” The next night, Sheherazade finished that story, and then began a new one, again leaving it unfinished at a critical point when the morning came.

Again, the prince wanted to hear the end of just that one more story and planned to have her killed after that. But she began to tell another story, and then another one, and so on, for 1001 nights.

During that time, she bore the prince three sons, and finally he decided that he loved Sheherazade too much and could not kill her. These stories are recorded in 1001 nights.

This story is from a dark age, but it is an illustration of the power of nonviolence. If Sheherazade had tried to smuggle a dagger with her to kill the murderous prince, his powerful bodyguards would easily have overwhelmed her. She used her superior wits to disarm the prince. This suggests an effective defense strategy available to small countries: play a useful, preferably indispensable role for your neighbors, so that they would hurt themselves if they attacked you.

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Dietrich Fischer, born in 1941 in Münsingen, Switzerland, got a Licentiate in Mathematics from the University of Bern 1968 and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University 1976. 1986-88 he was a MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security at Princeton University. He has taught mathematics, computer science, economics and peace studies at various universities and been a consultant to the United Nations.

Excerpted from Dietrich Fischer’s Stories to Inspire You – TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.

 

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 9 Mar 2015.

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