Od ličnosti do lika: Historijski zasnovani junaci 1001 noći
From personality to persona: historically based heroes of 1001 Nights

Summary/Abstract: The characters appearing in 1001 Nights are so numerous and so versatile in their background, time of appearance and roles, that it is almost impossible to find a single method for approaching them. However, it is usually possible to sort them by a key common feature and we thus have emperors and slaves, characters from parallel worlds, imposters, narrators, animals, etc. Among hundreds of them, there is one group of particular attraction: characters based on historical personalities. Namely, the stories contain names we find in history books – such as caliphs, viziers and military leaders, founders of schools of Islamic law, and a host of scholars and poets. The central issue is how much of their historical role models were preserved in the characters, that is, how much were they adapted to the fantasy world of their existence and what kind of new elements they acquired along the way. Contrary to what may be expected, they are determined neither less nor more than the other characters appearing in the stories. The truth is the contrary – they are known for certain stereotypes in their behaviour and their permanent attributes. The most frequently appearing character with a historical role model is certain the caliph Harun al-Rashid, and his entourage of men (and women), including the vizier Gafaar and the poet Abou-Nuvas. Interestingly, they are the ones who appear in quite a few stories, along with several other characters. It is important to note that literary characters and fictitious constructs and even when they are based on historically confirmed personalities and when they resemble real persons – they are not real. They are alive inasmuch as the characters of the genre are convincing, and not as realistic they are.

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