Who hasn’t heard of Aladin and the Magic Lamp or Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves? These, along with the Magic Carpet, Sinbad the Sailor and 200 other tales form the Arabian Nights, linked together as the efforts of a king's bride, Scheherezade, to prevent her husband from executing her. She managed to come up with fascinating tales night after night for a thousand and one nights, the King continued to let her live and eventually cancelled his decree and permitted her to live forever.
One of the most famous works to come out of the Muslim Middle East, Arabian Nights or The Thousand and One Nights is a collection of stories of diverse origin which assumed their final form in Muslim Egypt during the 15th century. There were numerous contributors. The stories include fairy tales, fables, romances, farces, legends, parables, semi-realistic tales of travel and adventure and small novels of moral and social significance. The tales, have a variety of settings: Baghdad, Basrah, Cairo and Damascus, as well as China, Greece, India, North Africa and Turkey.
It became one of the most famous works of Arab Literature in the English speaking world. Versions of the tales have been adapted for movies, TV, theater and opera and still other adaptations have long been a staple of children's literature everywhere. The tales first appeared in Europe in 1704 in French, and an English translation in 1885-1889. Without doubt, Arabian Nights influenced western literature and entertainment for centuries and even today.
Arabian Nights
