One Thousand and One Nights

"The Nights" redirects here. For single by Avicii, see The Nights (song).

One Thousand and One Nights is an old cycle (or group) of stories that mostly come from Arabia and Persia, and a few also from India, Central Asia and China. All these stories were later collected together. There are different layers of the stories:

• Uppermost is the story of Queen Scheherazade who needs to entertain her husband, the Sultan or King Sheheryar, or she would be put to death.
• The next layer is made up of the actual stories, such as Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, etc.
• In those stories, there is often also a narrator who tells the story.

It is similar to 101 Nights, also known as The Book with the Story of the 101 Nights, another Arabic story collection. The collections only have two stories in common - “The Ebony Horse” and “The King’s Son and the Seven Viziers,” popularly known as “The Book of Sinbad.”

One Thousand And One Nights Media

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  Scheherazade and Shahryar by Ferdinand Keller, 1880

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  A page from Kelileh va Demneh dated 1429, from Herat, a Persian version of the original ancient Indian Panchatantra – depicts the manipulative jackal-vizier, Dimna, trying to lead his lion-king into war.

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  The story of Princess Parizade and the Magic Tree by Maxfield Parrish, 1906

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  Arabic manuscript with parts of Arabian Nights, collected by Heinrich Friedrich von Diez, 19th century CE, origin unknown

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  Sindbad the sailor and Ali Baba and the forty thieves by William Strang, 1896

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  Arabic manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights dating back to the 14th century

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  Illustration of One Thousand and One Nights by Sani ol Molk, Iran, 1853

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  Sindbad and the Valley of Diamonds, from the Second Voyage.

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  Illustration of One Thousand and One Nights by Sani ol molk, Iran, 1849–1856

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  Illustration depicting Morgiana and the thieves from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

• Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1917).

Related pages

• Sinbad the Sailor
• Ali Baba
• Aladdin
• Hanna Diyab

Other websites

• The Thousand Nights and a Night in several classic translations, including unexpurgated version by Sir Francis Burton, and John Payne translation, with additional material.
• Stories From One Thousand and One Nights, (Lane and Poole translation): Project Bartleby edition
• The Arabian Nights (includes Lang and (expurgated) Burton translations): Electronic Literature Foundation editions Archived 2007-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
• The Medieval Arabic Nights Archived 2005-10-31 at the Wayback Machine - a study
• Jonathan Scott translation of Arabian Nights
• Notes on the influences and context of the Thousand and One Nights Archived 2000-05-11 at the Wayback Machine
• 1001 Resources and Links for A Thousand and One Nights Archived 2006-02-19 at the Wayback Machine University of Houston
• The Book of the Thousand and One Nights Archived 2000-05-11 at the Wayback Machine by John Crocker
• (expurgated) Sir Burton's ~1885 translation, annotated for English study.
• Arabian Nights' Tales Archived 2005-12-25 at the Wayback Machine Dedicated site with just the stories of 1001 nights listed in order.