Who was Dunyazad?

Dunyazad was the younger sister of Sheherezad, the famous storyteller of the Arabian nights.

Here is their story:

Once there were two brothers who each ruled over a different kingdom.  One brother, Shahzaman, decided to visit his elder brother  Shahryar.  On his way, Shahzaman remembered that he had left behind a gift he had arranged for his brother, and turned back.  At his palace, Shahzaman surprised his queen making love to a slave.  He slew them both and continued to his brother's palace where he recounted his troubling discovery.  Rendered suspicious, Shahryar decided to spy on his queen and concubines at their bath only to find them engaged in an orgy with his slaves.

Shahryar executed his queen and the slaves and, distraught, left his palace in the company of his brother to tour the land and take time out.

One day, by the Gulf of Oman they saw a black column of smoke rise from the sea and transform into a demon.  The demon opened a container from which emerged a beautiful young woman whom he had abducted on her wedding night.  The two brothers climbed a tree where they could look on and satisfy their curiosity.  As the demon slept with his head in the woman's lap, she spied them up in the tree and threatened to wake the demon if they didn’t come down and have sex with her. After they complied, she demanded their signet rings to add to her collection of 570 that had belonged to the previous lovers she had taken to avenge her abduction by the demon.

Convinced of the universal perfidy of the female sex, Shahzaman became a hermit while Sharyar decided to marry a virgin every night, only to have her killed in the morning so that she could never betray him.  After three years of so doing, it became almost impossible to find a virgin bride in the land. FInally Sheherezad, the daughter of the king’s vizir , offered herself up as the next bride.

On the wedding night she pleaded with the king to have her younger sister, Dunyazad,brought to their bedchamber so that she could farewell her before her execution the next morning.

Dunyazad asked her sister to tell her a story – one last time.  So intriguing was Sheherezad’s story telling so cleverly did she stop at a most suspenseful moment, that Shahryar permitted her to continue the telling for one more night. She managed to keep him intrigued for one thousand and one nights, by which time she had earned his love and respect and had borne him three sons.

By all accounts, they lived happily ever after, thanks to the quick wittedness of Dunyazad and the story telling talents of Sheherezad.