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One Thousand and One NightsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"Arabian Nights" redirects here. For other uses, see Arabian Nights (disambiguation).For other uses, see One Thousand and One Nights (disambiguation).Queen Scheherazadetells her stories to King Shahryār.One Thousand and One Nights(Arabic: كتاب ألفليلة وليلةKitāb 'alf layla wa-layla; Persian: هزار ویک شبHezār-o yek šab) is a collection of Middle Easternand South Asian storiesand folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English language edition (1706), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.[1]The work as we have it was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators and scholars across the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptianand Mesopotamianfolklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphateera, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian workHezār Afsān(Persian: هزار افسان, lit. A Thousand Tales) which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.[2]Though the oldest Arabic manuscript dates from the 14th century, scholarship generally dates the collection's genesis to around the 9th century.What is common throughout all the editions of the Nightsis the initial frame storyof the ruler Shahryar(from Persian: شهریار, meaning "king" or "sovereign") and his wife Scheherazade(from Persian: شهرزاده, possibly meaning "of noble lineage"[3]) and the framing deviceincorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more.
SynopsisSee also: List of stories within One Thousand and One Nightsand List of characters within One Thousand and One NightsThe main frame storyconcerns a Persianking 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 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 onlybegins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again. So it goes on for 1,001 nights.The tales vary widely: they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems, burlesquesand various forms of erotica. Numerous stories depict djinn, magicians, and legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography, not always rationally; common protagonistsinclude the historical caliphHarun al-Rashid, his vizier, Ja'far al-Barmaki, and his alleged court poet Abu Nuwas, despite the fact that these figures lived some 200 years after the fall of the Sassanid Empirein which the frame tale of Scheherazade is set. Sometimes a character in Scheherazade's tale will begin telling other characters a story of his own, and that story may have another one told within it, resulting in a richly layered narrative texture.The different versions have different individually detailed endings (in some Scheherazade asks for a pardon, in some the king sees their children and decides not to execute his wife, in some other things happen that make the king distracted) but they all end with the king giving his wife a pardon and sparing her life.Literary themes and techniquesThe One Thousand and OneNightsand various tales within it make use of many innovative literary techniques, which the storytellers of the tales rely on for increased drama, suspense, or other emotions.[23]Some of these date back to earlier Persian,