Inscription of "One Thousand and One Nights (Hezar-o Yek Shab) Folktales (Hezar Afsan)" on Iran's National ICH Inventory
Having approved by the National Council for the Inscription of Intangible Cultural Heritage in its session on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, "One Thousand and One Nights (Hezar-o Yek Shab) Folktales (Hezar Afsan)" was inscribed on Iran's national ICH inventory. The "One Thousand and One Nights (Hezar-o Yek Shab) Folktales (Hezar Afsan)" file was prepared and proposed by Mana Naqsh Institute, and Shahab Nikman, the managing director of the institute, on behalf of the authors, attended the sessio
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On Tuesday, February 13, 2024, following Article 12 of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO and Article 3 of the Statute of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts of Iran, in the session of the National Council for the Inscription of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the file "One Thousand and One Nights (Hezar-o Yek Shab) Folktales (Hezar Afsan)" which was prepared and proposed by Mana Naqsh Art & Culture Institute, was inscribed on Iran's national ICH inventory. Shahab Nikman, the managing director of Mana Naqsh, on behalf of the authors, attended the session to present and defend the file, which was prepared in collaboration with Morteza Razvanfar, Shahab Nikman, and Sudabe Matloobi Daryan.
One Thousand and One Nights (Hezar Afsan) is a collection of folktales about, Scheherazade, the storyteller and the minister's daughter, and Shahryar, the king, and the serial stories that Scheherazade narrates to Shahryar every night. These folk and classic tales contain from 244 to 251 (based on various versions) long, short, continuous, and linear stories that have been collected and narrated for centuries by word of mouth and written scripts.
This ICH element, which was inscribed of national scope, is manifested in three out of the five intangible cultural heritage domains, including "oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage", "performing arts", and "traditional craftsmanship".
