Scheherazade’s father is the vizier of King Shahryār. 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 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. Scheherazade’s father eventually goes to Samarkand where he replaces Shāhzamā as sultan. Note: He is not to be confused with Ja’far ibn Yahya, a historical character who was also a vizier – to historical Caliph Harun al-Rashid – and who appears as a protagonist in at least two of Scheherazade’s tales. Also not to be confused with the Disney villain of the same name. In fact, Disney’s Jafar was based on two originally distinct characters from the story of Aladdin: one a vizier, the other a sorcerer; and neither of them is related to either the historical Ja’far or to Scheherazade’s father.
Appearance List One Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights with first English-language edition c. 1706–1721
Sample Read The Arabian Nights: Their Best-known Tales by Smith, Wiggin, and Parrish [PG]
Description Scheherazade’s father is the vizier of King Shahryār. 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 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. Scheherazade’s father eventually goes to Samarkand where he replaces Shāhzamā as sultan. Note: He is not to be confused with Ja’far ibn Yahya, a historical character who was also a vizier – to historical Caliph Harun al-Rashid – and who appears as a protagonist in at least two of Scheherazade’s tales. Also not to be confused with the Disney villain of the same name. In fact, Disney’s Jafar was based on two originally distinct characters from the story of Aladdin: one a vizier, the other a sorcerer; and neither of them is related to either the historical Ja’far or to Scheherazade’s father.
