The Arabian Nights" is a magnificent collection of ancient tales told by the sultana Scheherazade, who relates them as entertainment for her jealous and murderous husband, hoping to keep him... More > amused and herself alive. The main frame story concerns a king and his new bride. The king, Shahryar, upon discovering his ex-wife’s infidelity executes her and then declares all women to be unfaithful. He begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning. Scheherazade agrees to marry him and each night, beginning on the night of their marriage, she tells the king a tale but does not end it so that the king keeps her alive in order to hear the next tale.< Less
Arabian Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and... More > medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Turkish, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature.
Some of the stories of The Nights, particularly "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor", while almost certainly genuine Middle-Eastern folk tales. The tales vary widely: they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems. Numerous stories depict Jinns, Ghouls, Apes,[5] sorcerers, magicians, and legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography, not always rationally. The narrator's standards for what constitutes a cliffhanger seem broader than in modern literature. While in many cases a story is cut off with the hero in danger of losing his life or another kind of deep trouble.< Less
The main frame story concerns a Persian king and his new bride. He is shocked to discover that his brother's wife is unfaithful; discovering his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he... More > has her executed: but in his bitterness and grief decides that all women are the same. The king, Shahryar, begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonour him. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again. So it goes on for 1,001 nights.< Less
