Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights are a collection of Persian, Arabian and Indian folk tales handed down through
several centuries.

List of stories within One Thousand and One

Nights
This article provides a list of stories within Richard Francis Burton's translation of One
Thousand and One Nights. Burton's first ten volumes were published between 1885 and 1886.
The Supplemental Nights were published between 1886 and 1888 as six volumes in seven, with
the fourth volume sometimes treated as the second part of the third volume. The nights are in the
style of stories within stories, and the frame story is The Story Of King Shahryar of Persia and
His Brother or The Story Of King Shahryar and Queen Shahrazad, in which Shahrazad tells tales
to her husband Shahryar.

NOTE: The numbers in parentheses indicate that the night in question began (and the
previous night ended) during the tale indicated.


Volume 1
 Story Of King Shahryar and His Brother
o Tale of the Bull and the Ass (Told by the Wazir)
o Tale of the Trader and the Jinni (1)
 The First Shaykh's Story (2)
 The Second Shaykh's Story
 The Third Shaykh's Story (3)
o The Fisherman and the Jinni (4)
 Tale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban (5)
 Story of King Sindibad and His Falcon
 Tale of the Husband and the Parrot
 Tale of the Prince and the Ogress (6)(7)
 Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince (8)(9)
o The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad (10)(11)
 The First Kalandar's Tale (12)
 The Second Kalandar's Tale (13)
  Tale of the Envier and the Envied (14)
 The Third Kalandar's Tale (15)(16)(17)
 The Eldest Lady's Tale (18)
 Tale of the Portress (19)
o Conclusion of the Story of the Porter and the Three Ladies
o The Tale of the Three Apples (20)
 Tale of Núr al-Dín Alí and his Son (21)(22)(23)(24)
o The Hunchback's Tale (25)
 The Nazarene Broker's Story (26)(27)
 The Reeve's Tale (28)
 Tale of the Jewish Doctor (29)
 Tale of the Tailor (30)(31)
 The Barber's Tale of Himself
 The Barber's Tale of his First Brother
 The Barber's Tale of his Second Brother (32)
 The Barber's Tale of his Third Brother
 The Barber's Tale of his Fourth Brother
 The Barber's Tale of his Fifth Brother (33)
 The Barber's Tale of his Sixth Brother
 The End of the Tailor's Tale (34)

Volume 2

o Nur al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis Al-Jalis (35)(36)(37)(38)
o Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyub, The Distraught, The Thrall o' Love (39)
 Tale of the First Eunuch, Bukhayt
 Tale of the Second Eunuch, Kafur (40)
o [Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyub, resumed] (41)(42)(43)(44)(45)
o The Tale of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau al-
Makan, and What Befel Them of Things Seld-Seen and Peregrine (46)to (107)
 Tale of Tàj al-Mulúk and the Princess Dunyà: The Lover and the Loved
(108)(109)(110)(111)(112)
 Tale of Azíz and Azízah (113) to (124)

Volume 3

o The Tale of King Omar Bin al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau al-
Makan (cont'd)

 Continuation of the Tale of Aziz and Azizah
(125)(126)(127)(128)(129)
 [Tale of Táj al-Mulák and the Princess Dunyá] (resumed)
(129)(130)(131)(132)(133)(134)(135)(136)(137)
 o [The Tale of King Omar Bin al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau al-
Makan] (resumed) (138)(139)(140)(141)(142)
 Tale of the Hashish Eater (143)
o [The Tale of King Omar Bin al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau al-
Makan] (resumed) (144)
 Tale of Hammad the Badawi (145)
o [The Tale of King Omar Bin al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau al-
Makan] (resumed) (146)
o The Birds and Beasts and the Carpenter (147)
o The Hermits (148)
o The Water-Fowl and the Tortoise
o The Wolf and the Fox (149)
 Tale of the Falcon and the Partridge (150)
o The Mouse and the Ichneumon
o The Cat and the Crow
o The Fox and the Crow
 The Flea and the Mouse (151)
 The Saker and the Birds (152)
 The Sparrow and the Eagle
o The Hedgehog and the Wood Pigeons
 The Merchant and the Two Sharpers
o The Thief and His Monkey
 The Foolish Weaver
o The Sparrow and the Peacock (153)
o Tale of Ali bin Bakkar and Shams al-Nahar
(154)(155)(156)(157)(158)(159)(160)(161)(162)(163)(164)(165)(166)(167)(168)(
169)(170)
o Tale of Kamar al-Zaman (171) to (237)

Volume 4

o The Enchanted Horse (Andrew Lang version only)
o Tale of Kamar al-Zaman (cont'd)
 Ni'amah bin al-Rabi'a and Naomi His Slave-Girl
(238)(239)(240)(241)(242)(243)(244)(245)(246)
o [Conclusion of the Tale of Kamar al-Zaman] (247)(248)(249)
o Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat
(250)(251)(252)(253)(254)(255)(256)(257)(258)(259)(260)(261)(262)(263)(264)(
265)(266)(267)(268)(269)
o Hatim of the Tribe of Tayy (270)
o Tale of Ma'an the Son of Zaidah (271)
o Ma'an the Son of Zaidah and the Badawi
o The City of Labtayt (272)
o The Caliph Hisham and the Arab Youth
o Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi and the Barber-Surgeon (273)(274)(275)
 o The City of Many-Columned Iram and Abdullah Son of Abi Kilabah
(276)(277)(278)(279)
o Isaac of Mosul (280)(281)(282)
o The Sweep and the Noble Lady (283)(284)(285)
o The Mock Caliph (286)(287)(288)(289)(290)(291)(292)(293)(294)
o Ali the Persian (295)(296)
o Harun al-Rashid and the Slave-Girl and the Iman Abu Yusuf (297)
o Tale of the Lover Who Feigned Himself a Thief (298)(299)
o Ja'afar the Barmecide and the Bean-Seller
o Abu Mohammed hight Lazybones (300)(301)(302)(303)(304)(305)
o Generous Dealing of Yahya bin Khalid The Barmecide with Mansur (306)
o Generous Dealing of Yahya Son of Khalid with a Man Who Forged a Letter in his
Name (307)
o Caliph Al-Maamum and the Strange Scholar (308)
o Ali Shar and Zumurrud
(309)(310)(311)(312)(313)(314)(315)(316)(317)(318)(319)(320)(321)(322)(323)(
324)(325)(326)(327)
o The Loves of Jubayr bin Umayr and the Lady Budur
(328)(329)(330)(331)(332)(333)(334)
o The Man of Al-Yaman and His Six Slave-Girls (335)(336)(337)(338)
o Harun al-Rashid and the Damsel and Abu Nowas (339)(340)
o The Man Who Stole the Dish of Gold Wherein The Dog Ate (341)
o The Sharper of Alexandria and the Chief of Police (342)
o Al-Malik al-Nasir and the Three Chiefs of Police (343)
 The Story of the Chief of Police of Cairo
 The Story of the Chief of the Bulak Police (344)
 The Story of the Chief of the Old Cairo Police
o The Thief and the Shroff (345)
o The Chief of the Kus Police and the Sharper (346)
o Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi and the Merchant's Sister (347)
o The Woman whose Hands were Cut Off for Giving Alms to the Poor (348)
o The Devout Israelite (349)
o Abu Hassan al-Ziyadi and the Khorasan Man (350)(351)
o The Poor Man and His Friend in Need
o The Ruined Man Who became Rich Again Through a Dream (352)
o Caliph al-Mutawakkil and his Concubine Mahbubah (353)
o Wardan the Butcher; His Adventure With the Lady and the Bear (354)(355)
o The King's Daughter and the Ape (356)(357)

Volume 5

o The Ebony Horse
(358)(359)(360|)(361)(362)(363)(364)(365)(366)(367)(368)(369)(370)(371)
o Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir's Daughter al-Ward Fi'l-Akmam or Rose-In-Hood
(372)(373)(374)(375)(376)(377)(378)(379)(380)(381)
o Abu Nowas With the Three Boys and the Caliph Harun al-Rashid (382)(383)
o Abdallah bin Ma'amar With the Man of Bassorah and His Slave Girl
o The Lovers of the Banu Ozrah (384)
o The Wazir of al-Yaman and His Younger Brother
o The Loves of the Boy and Girl at School (385)
o Al-Mutalammis and His Wife Umaymah
o The Caliph Marun al-Rashid and Queen Zubaydah in the Bath (386)
o Harun al-Rashid and the Three Poets
o Mus'ab bin al-Zubayr and Ayishah Daughter of Talhah (387)
o Abu al-Aswad and His Slave-Girl
o Harun al-Rashid and the Two Slave-Girls
o The Caliph Harun al-Rashid and the Three Slave-Girls
o The Miller and His Wife (388)
o The Simpleton and the Sharper
o The Kazi Abu Yusuf With Harun al-Rashid and Queen Zubaydah (389)
o The Caliph al-Hakim and the Merchant
o King Kisra Anushirwan and the Village Damsel (390)
o The Water-Carrier and the Goldsmith's Wife (391)
o Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman
o Yahya bin Khalid the Barmecide and the Poor Man (392)
o Mohammed al-Amin and the Slave-Girl
o The Sons of Yahya bin Khalid and Sa'id bin Salim al-Bahili (393)
o The Woman's Trick Against Her Husband (394)
o The Devout Woman and the Two Wicked Elders
o Ja'afar the Barmecide and the Old Badawi (395)
o The Caliph Omar bin al-Khattab and the Young Badawi (396)(397)
o The Caliph al-Maamum and the Pyramids of Egypt (398)
o The Thief and the Merchant (399)
o Masrur the Eunuch and Ibn al-Karibi (400)(401)
o The Devotee Prince (402)
o The Unwise Schoolmaster Who Fell in Love by Report (403)
o The Foolish Dominie
o The Illiterate Who Set Up For a Schoolmaster (404)
o The King and the Virtuous Wife
o Abd al-Rahman the Maghribi's Story of the Rukh (405)
o Adi bin Zayd and the Princess Hind (406)(407)
o Di'ibil al-Khuza'i With the Lady and Muslim bin al-Walid
o Isaac of Mosul and the Merchant (408)(409)
o The Three Unfortunate Lovers (410)
o How Abu Hasan Brake Wind
o The Lovers of the Banu Tayy (411)
o The Mad Lover (412)
o The Prior Who Became a Moslem (413)(414)
o The Loves of Abu Isa and Kurrat al-Ayn (415)(416)(417)(418)
o Al-Amin Son of al-Rashid and His Uncle Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi (419)
o Al-Fath bin Khakan and the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil
 o The Man's Dispute With the Learned Woman Concerning the Relative Excellence
of Male and Female (420)(421)(422)(423)
o Abu Suwayd and the Pretty Old Woman (424)
o The Emir ali bin Tahir and the Girl Muunis
o The Woman Who had a Boy and the Other Who had a Man to Lover
o Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad
(425)(426)(427)(428)(429)(430)(431)(432)(433)(434)
o The Pilgrim Man and the Old Woman (435)(436)
o Abu al-Husn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud (437) to (462)
o The Angel of Death With the Proud King and the Devout Man
o The Angel of Death and the Rich King (463)
o The Angel of Death and the King of the Children of Israel (464)
o Iskandar Zu al-Karnayn and a Certain Tribe of Poor Folk
o The Righteousness of King Anushirwan (465)
o The Jewish Kazi and His Pious Wife (468)
o The Shipwrecked Woman and Her Child (467)
o The Pious Black Slave (468)
o The Devout Tray-Maker and His Wife (469)(470)
o Al-Hajjaj and the Pious Man (471)
o The Blacksmith Who Could Handle Fire Without Hurt (472)(473)
o The Devotee To Whom Allah Gave a Cloud for Service and the Devout King
(474)
o The Moslem Champion and the Christian Damsel (475)(476)(477)
o The Christian King's Daughter and the Moslem (478)
o The Prophet and the Justice of Providence (479)
o The Ferryman of the Nile and the Hermit
o The Island King and the Pious Israelite (480)(481)
o Abu al-Hasan and Abu Ja'afar the Leper (482)
o The Queen of Serpents (483)(484)(485)(486)
 The Adventures of Bulukiya
(487)(488)(489)(490)(491)(492)(493)(494)(495)(496)(497)(498)(499)
 The Story of Janshah (500) to (530)
 [The Adventures of Bulukiya] resumed (531)(532)(533)
o [The Queen of Serpents] resumed (534)(535)(536)

Volume 6

o Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman (537)(538)
 The First Voyage of Sindbad hight the Seaman (539)(540)(541)(542)
 The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman (543)(544)(545)(546)
 The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman (547)(548)(549)(550)
 The Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman
(551)(552)(553)(554)(555)(556)
 The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman (557)(558)(559)
 The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman (560)(561)(562)(563)
  The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman (564)(565)(566)
 [Burton adds an alternative seventh voyage before concluding the Sindbad
head story]
o The City of Brass
(567)(568)(569)(570)(571)(572)(573)(574)(575)(576)(577)(578)
o The Craft and Malice of Woman, or the Tale of the King, His Son, His Concubine
and the Seven Wazirs
 The King and His Wazir's Wife (579)
 The Confectioner, His Wife and the Parrot
 The Fuller and His Son (580)
 The Rake's Trick Against the Chaste Wife
 The Miser and the Loaves of Bread (581)
 The Lady and Her Two Lovers
 The King's Son and the Ogress (582)
 The Drop of Honey
 The Woman Who Made Her Husband Sift Dust
 The Enchanted Spring (583)(584)
 The Wazir's Son and the Hammam-Keeper's Wife
 The Wife's Device to Cheat her Husband (585)(586)
 The Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl (587)
 The Man who Never Laughed During the Rest of His Days
(588)(589)(590)(591)
 The King's Son and the Merchant's Wife (592)
 The Page Who Feigned to Know the Speech of Birds (593)
 The Lady and Her Five Suitors (594)(595)(596)
 The Three Wishes, or the Man Who Longed to see the Night of Power
 The Stolen Necklace (597)
 The Two Pigeons
 Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma (598)
 The House With the Belvedere (599)(600)(601)(602)
 The King's Son and the Ifrit's Mistress (603)
 The Sandal-Wood Merchant and the Sharpers (604)(605)(
 The Debauchee and the Three-Year-Old Child
 The Stolen Purse (606)
 The Fox and the Folk
o Judar and His Brethren
(607)(608)(609)(610)(611)(612)(613)(614)(615)(616)(617)(618)(619)(620)(621)(
622)(623)(624)
o The History of Gharib and His Brother Ajib
(625)(626)(627)(628)(629)(630)(631)(632)(633)(634)(635)(636)

Volume 7

o The History of Gharib and His Brother Ajib (continued) (637) to (680)
o Otbah and Rayya (681)
 o Hind Daughter of Al-Nu'man, and Al-Hajjaj (682)(683)
o Khuzaymah Bin Bishr and Ikrimah Al-Fayyaz (684)
o Yunus the Scribe and the Caliph Walid Bin Sahl (685)
o Harun al-Rashid and the Arab Girl (686)
o Al-Asma'i and the Three Girls of Bassorah (687)
o Ibrahim of Mosul and the Devil (688)
o The Lovers of the Banu Uzrah (689)(690)(691)
o The Badawi and His Wife (692)(693)
o The Lovers of Bassorah (694)(695)
o Ishak of Mosul and His Mistress and the Devil (696)
o The Lovers of Al-Medinah (697)
o Al-Malik Al-Nasir and His Wazir (698)
o The Rogueries of Dalilah the Crafty and Her Daughter Zaynab the Coney-Catcher
(699)(700)(701)(702)(703)(704)(705)(706)(707)(708)
 The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo
(709)(710)(711)(712)(713)(714)(715)(716)(717)(718)(719)
o Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus (720) to (738)
o Julnar the Sea-Born and Her Son King Badr Basim of Persia (739) to (756)
o King Mohammed Bin Sabaik and the Merchant Hasan (757)(758)
 Story of Prince Sayf al-Muluk and the Princess Badi'a al-Jamal (759) to
(776)

Volume 8

o King Mohammed Bin Sabaik and the Merchant Hasan (cont'd)
 Story of Prince Sayf al-Muluk and the Princess Badi'a al-Jamal (cont'd)
(777)(778)
o Hassan of Bassorah (779) to (831)
o Khalifah The Fisherman Of Baghdad (832) to (845)
o [Alternate version of the same story from the Breslau edition]
o Masrur and Zayn al-Mawasif (846) to (863)
o Ali Nur al-Din and Miriam the Girdle-Girl (864) to (888)

Volume 9

o Ali Nur al-Din and Miriam the Girdle-Girl (continued)
(889)(890)(891)(892)(893)(894)
o The Man of Upper Egypt and His Frankish Wife (895)(896)
o The Ruined Man of Baghdad and his Slave-Girl (897)(898)(899)
o King Jali'ad of Hind and His Wazir Shimas (900)
o The History of King Wird Khan, son of King Jali'ad with His Women and Wazirs
 The Mouse and the Cat (901)(902)
 The Fakir and His Jar of Butter (903)
  The Fishes and the Crab
 The Crow and the Serpent (904)
 The Wild Ass and the Jackal (905)
 The Unjust King and the Pilgrim Prince (906)
 The Crows and the Hawk (907)
 The Serpent-Charmer and His Wife (908)
 The Spider and the Wind (909)
 The Two Kings (910)
 The Blind Man and the Cripple
(911)(912)(913)(914)(915)(916)(917)(918)
 The Foolish Fisherman
 The Boy and the Thieves (919)
 The Man and his Wife (920)
 The Merchant and the Robbers (921)
 The Jackals and the Wolf
 The Shepherd and the Rogue (922)(923)(924)
 The Francolin and the Tortoises
o [The History of King Wird Khan, son of King Jali'ad with His Women and
Wazirs] resumed (925)(926)(927)(928)(929)(930)
o Abu Kir the Dyer and Abu Sir the Barber
(931)(932)(933)(934)(935)(936)(937)(938)(939)(940)
o Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman
(941)(942)(943)(944)(945)(946)
o Harun Al-Rashid and Abu Hasan, The Merchant of Oman
(947)(948)(949)(950)(951)(952)
o Ibrahim and Jamilah (953)(954)(955)(956)(957)(958)(959)
o Abu Al-Hasan of Khorasan (960)(961)(962)(963)
o Kamar Al-Zaman and the Jeweller's Wife
(964)(965)(966)(967)(968)(969)(970)(971)(972)(973)(974)(975)(976)(977)(978)
o Abdullah bin Fazil and His Brothers
(979)(980)(981)(982)(983)(984)(985)(986)(987)(988)(989)

Volume 10

o Ma'aruf the Cobbler and His Wife Fatimah
(990)(991)(992)(993)(994)(995)(996)(997)(998)(999)(1000)(1001)
 Conclusion of Shahrazad and Shahryar

Also included in this volume

 Terminal Essay
o Preliminary
o I. The Origin of The Nights
 A. The Birthplace
 B. The Date
  C. [Authors]
o II. The Nights in Europe
o III. The Matter and the Manner of The Nights
 A. The Matter
 B. The Manner of The Nights
o IV. Social Condition
 A. Al-Islam
 B. Woman
 C. Pornography
 D. Pederasty
o V. On the Prose-Rhyme and the Poetry of The Nights
 A. The Saj'a
 B. The Verse
o L'Envoi
 Index (for both the remaining tales in this volume and the terminal essay)
 Appendices
o Memorandum
o Appendix I
 Index I: Index to the Tales and Proper Names
 Index II: Alphabetical Table of the Notes (Anthropological, &c.)
 Index IIIA: Alphabetical Table of First Lines (Metrical Portion) in English
 Index IIIB: Alphabetical Table of First Lines (Metrical Portion) in Arabic
 Index IVA: Table of Contents of the Unfinished Calcutta Edition
 Index IVB: Table of Contents of the Breslau (Tunis) Edition
 Index IVC: Table of Contents of the MacNaghten or Turner-Macan Text
and Bulak Edition
 Index IVD: Comparison of the Tables of Contents of the Lane and Burton
versions
o Appendix II: Contributions to the Bibliography (by W. F. Kirby)
 Galland's MS and Translation
 Cazotte's Continuation, and the Composite Editions
 The Commencement of the Story of Saif Zul Yezn According to Habicht
 Scott's MSS and Translations
 Weil's Translation
 Von Hammer's MS and the Translations Derived from it
 Collections of Selected Tales
 Separate Editions of Single or Composite Tales
 Translations of Cognate Oriental Romances
 Dr. Clarke's MS.
 Imitations and Miscellaneous Works
 Conclusion
 Comparative Table of the Tales in the Principal Editions

Supplemental Nights, Volume 1

The material in the first two of the seven supplemental volumes are the Arabic tales originally
included in the John Payne translation. They are mostly taken from the Breslau edition and the
Calcutta fragment.


o The Sleeper and the Waker
 Story of the Larrikin and the Cook
o The Caliph Omar Bin Abd al-Aziz and the Poets
o Al-Hajjaj and the Three Young Men
o Harun al-Rashid and the Woman of the Barmecides
o The Ten Wazirs; or the History of King Azadbakht and His Son

This is a series of stories from the Breslau edition (nights 435-487) in which a youth
saves his life by telling stories over eleven days.

 Of the Uselessness of Endeavour Against Persistent Ill Fortune

 Story of the Merchant Who Lost His Luck
 Of Looking To the Ends of Affairs
 Tale of the Merchant and His Sons
 Of the Advantages of Patience
 Story of Abu Sabir
 Of the Ill Effects of Impatience
 Story of Prince Bihzad
 Of the Issues of Good and Evil Actions
 Story of King Dadbin and His Wazirs
 Of Trust in Allah
 Story of King Bakhtzaman
 Of Clemency
 Story of King Bihkard
 Of Envy and Malice
 Story of Aylan Shah and Abu Tammam
 Of Destiny or That Which Is Written On the Forehead
 Story of King Ibrahim and His Son
 Of the Appointed Term, Which, if it be Advanced, May Not Be Deferred,
and if it be Deferred, May Not Be Advanced
 Story of King Sulayman Shah and His Niece
 Of the Speedy Relief of Allah
 Story of the Prisoner and How Allah Gave Him Relief
o Ja'afar Bin Yahya and Abd al-Malik bin Salih the Abbaside
o Al-Rashid and the Barmecides

Breslau, night 567

o Ibn al-Sammak and al-Rashid

o Al-Maamum and Zubaydah
o Al-Nu'uman and the Arab of the Banu Tay
Breslau, nights 660-661

o Firuz and His Wife

Breslau, nights 675-676

o King Shah Bakht and his Wazir Al-Rahwan

Breslau nights 875-930; a wazir accused of plotting to kill the king saves himself by
telling tales each night for a month (28 days).

 Tale of the Man of Khorasan, His Son and His Tutor

 Tale of the Singer and the Druggist
 Tale of the King Who Kenned the Quintessence of Things
 Tale of the Richard Who Married His Beautiful Daughter to the Poor Old
Man
 Tale of the Sage and His Three Sons
 Tale of the Prince who Fell in Love With the Picture
 Tale of the Fuller and His Wife and the Trooper
 Tale of the Merchant, The Crone, and the King
 Tale of the Simpleton Husband
 Tale of the Unjust King and the Tither
 Story of David and Solomon
 Tale of the Robber and the Woman
 Tale of the Three Men and Our Lord Isa
 The Disciple's Story
 Tale of the Dethroned Ruler Whose Reign and Wealth Were Restored to
Him
 Talk of the Man Whose Caution Slew Him
 Tale of the Man Who Was Lavish of His House and His Provision to One
Whom He Knew Not
 Tale of the Melancholist and the Sharper
 Tale of Khalbas and his Wife and the Learned Man
 Tale of the Devotee Accused of Lewdness
 Tale of the Hireling and the Girl
 Tale of the Weaver Who Became a Leach by Order of His Wife
 Tale of the Two Sharpers Who Each Cozened His Compeer
 Tale of the Sharpers With the Shroff and the Ass
 Tale of the Chear and the Merchants
 Story of the Falcon and the Locust
 Tale of the King and His Chamberlain's Wife
 Story of the Crone and the Draper's Wife
 Tale of the Ugly Man and His Beautifule Wife
 Tale of the King Who Lost Kingdom and Wife and Wealth and Allah
Restored Them to Him
 Tale of Salim the Youth of Khorasan and Salma, His Sister
  Tale of the King of Hind and His Wazir
 Shahrazad and Shahryar, [an extract from the Breslau edition].

Supplemental Nights, Volume 2


o Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Bibars al-Bundukdari and the Sixteen Captains of
Police

Breslau nights 930-940

 First Constable's History

 Second Constable's History
 Third Constable's History
 Fourth Constable's History
 Fifth Constable's History
 Sixth Constable's History
 Seventh Constable's History
 Eighth Constable's History
 The Thief's Tale
 Ninth Constable's History
 Tenth Constable's History
 Eleventh Constable's History
 Twelfth Constable's History
 Thirteenth Constable's History
 Fourteenth Constable's History
 A Merry Jest of a Clever Thief
 Tale of the Old Sharper
 Fifteenth Constable's History
 Sixteenth Constable's History
o Tale of Harun al-Rashid and Abdullah bin Nafi'

Breslau nights 941-957

 Tale of the Damsel Torfat al-Kulub and the Caliph Harun al-Rashid

To this tale Burton added an extensive footnote about circumcision.

o Women's Wiles

Calcutta edition nights 196-200

o Nur al-Din Ali of Damascus and the Damsel Sitt al-Milah

Breslau nights 958-965

 o Tale of King Ins bin Kays and His Daughter with the Son of King Al-'Abbas

Breslau nights 966-979

 Alternate ending from the Breslau edition of tale of Shahrazad and Shahryar, with the
remaining tales being told aftet night 1001
o Tale of the Two kings and the Wazir's Daughters
o The Concubine and the Caliph
o The Concubine of Al-Maamun

In the remainder of this volume W. A. Clouston presents "variants and analogues" of the
supplemental nights.


o The Sleeper and the Waker
o The Ten Wazirs; or the History of King Azadbakht and His Son
o King Dadbin and His Wazirs
o King Aylan Shah and Abu Tamman
o King Sulayman Shah and His Niece
o Firuz and His Wife
o King Shah Bakht and His Wazir Al-Rahwan
o On the Art of Enlarging Pearls
o The Singer and the Druggist
 Persian version
 Ser Giovanni's version
 Straparola's version
o The King Who Kenned the Quintessence of Things
 Indian version
 Siberian version
 Hungarian version
 Turkish analogue
o The Prince Who Fell In Love With the Picture
o The Fuller, His Wife, and the Trooper
o The Simpleton Husband
o The Three Men and our Lord Isa
o The Melancholist and the Sharper
o The Devout Woman accused of Lewdness
o The Weaver Who Became A Leach By Order of His Wife
o The King Who Lost Kingdom, Wife, and Wealth
 Kashmiri version
 Panjàbí version
 Tibetan version
 Legend of St. Eustache
 Old English "Gesta" version
 Romance of Sir Isumbras
o Al-Malik al-Zahir and the Sixteen Captains of Police
 o The Thief's Tale
o The Ninth Constable's Story
o The Fifteenth Constable's Story
o The Damsel Tuhfat al-Kulub
o Women's Wiles
o Nur al-Din and the Damsel Sitt al-Milah
o King Ins Bin Kays and his Daughter
o Additional Notes
 Firuz and His Wife
 The Singer and the Druggist
 The Fuller, His Wife, and the Trooper

Supplemental Nights, Volume 3

This volume is based primarily on tales found in a Bibliothèque nationale manuscript
(Supplement Arab. No.2523) which was used by Antoine Galland. The nights indicated overlap
with those given in Burton's main series. The Table of Contents in this covers this and the
following volume.

 Foreword
o The Tale of Zayn al-Asnam (497) to (513)
 Turkish version
o Alaeddin and The Wonderful Lamp (514) to (591)
 English translation of Galland
o Khudadad and His Brothers (592) to (595)
 History of the Princess of Daryabar (596) to (599)
o [Khudadad and His Brothers] resumed (600) to (604)

Supplemental Nights, Volume 4


o The Caliph's Night Adventure (605)(606)
 The Story of the Blind Man, Baba Abdullah (607) to (611)
 History of Sidi Nu'uman (612) to (615)
 History of Khwajah Hasan al-Habbal (616) to (625)
o Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (626) to (638)
o Ali Khwajah and the Merchant of Baghdad (639) to (643)
o Prince Ahmad and the Fairy Peri-Banu (644) to (667)
o The Two Sisters Who Envied Their Cadette (668) to (688)

Appendix

 Variants and Analogues of the Tales in the Supplemental Nights, by W. A. Clouston

o The Tale of Zayn al-Asnam
o Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp
 o Khudadad and his Brothers
o The Story of the Blind Man, Baba Abdullah
o History of Sidi Nu'uman
o History of Khwajah Hasan al-Habbal
o Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
o Ali Khwajah and the Merchant of Baghdad
o Prince Ahmad and the Peri-Banu
o The Two Sisters Who Envied Their Cadette
 Modern Arabic version
 Kaba'il version
 Modern Greek version
 Albanian version
 Italian version
 Breton version
 German version
 Icelandic version
 Bengalí version
 Buddhist version
 Additional notes
o The Tale of Zayn al-Asnam
o Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp
o Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
o The Tale of Prince Ahmad

Supplemental Nights, Volume 5

The stories in this volume are based on the Wortley Montague Codex in the Bodleian Library,
originally used for the Jonathan Scott translation. No explanation has been found regarding the
nights that do not appear.

 Translator's Foreword
o Story of the Sultan of Al-Yaman and His Three Sons (330) to (334)
o Story of the Three Sharpers (335) to (342)
 The Sultan Who Fared Forth in the Habit of a Darwaysh (343)
 History of Mohammed, Sultan of Cairo (344) to (348)
 Story of the First Lunatic (349) to (354)
 Story of the Second Lunatic (355) to (357)
 Story of the Sage and the Scholar (358) to (361)
 The Night-Adventure of Sultan Mohammed of Cairo with the Three
Foolish Schoolmasters (362)
 Story of the Broke-Back Schoolmaster (363)
 Story of the Split-Mouthed Schoolmaster (364)
 Story of the Limping Schoolmaster (365)
 [The Night-Adventure of Sultan Mohammed of Cairo] resumed (366)
 Story of the Three Sisters and Their Mother the Sultanah (367) to (385)
o History of the Kazi Who Bare a Babe (387) to (392)
 o Tale of the Kazi and the Bhang-Eater (393) to (397)
 History of the Bhang-Eater and His Wife (398) to (400)
 How Drummer Abu Kasim Became a Kazi (401)
 Story of the Kazi and His Slipper (402) (403)
o [Tale of the Kazi and the Bhang-Eater] resumed (404) to (412)
 Tale of Mahmud the Persian and the Kurd Sharper (417)
 Tale of the Sultan and His Sons and the Enchanting Bird (418) to (425)
 Story of the King of Al-Yaman and His Three Sons and the Enchanting
Bird (427)(429)(430)(432)(433)(435)(437)(438) (sic!)
 History of the First Larrikin (441)(442)(443)
 History of the Second Larrikin (445)
 History of the Third Larrikin (447)
 Story of a Sultan of Al-Hind and His Son Mohammed
(449)(452)(455)(457)(459)
 Tale of the Fisherman and His Son (461)(463)(465)(467)(469)
 Tale of the Third Larrikin Concerning Himself (471)
o History of Abu Niyyah and Abu Niyyatayn (473)(475)(477)(479)(480)

 Appendices
o A: Ineptiæ Bodleianæ
o B: The Three Untranslated Tales in Mr. E. J. W. Gibb's "Forty Vezirs"
 The Thirty-eighth Vezir's Story
 The Fortieth Vezir's story
 The Lady's Thirty-fourth Story

Supplemental Nights, Volume 6

This volume continues material from the Wortley Montague Codex

 Translator's Foreword
o The History of the King's Son of Sind and the Lady Fatimah (495)(497)(499)
o History of the Lovers of Syria (503)(505)(507)(509)
o History of Al-Hajjaj Bin Yusuf and the Young Sayyid (512)(514)(516)(518)
o Night Adventure of Harun al-Rashid and the Youth Manjab
 The Loves of the Lovers of Bassorah (in volume 7 of The Nights)
o [Night Adventure of Harun al-Rashid and the Youth Manjab] resumed
(634)(635)(636)(638)(640)(642)(643)(645)(646)(648)(649)(651)
 Story of the Darwaysh and the Barber's Boy and the Greedy Sultan
(653)(655)
 Tale of the Simpleton Husband (656)
 Note Concerning the "Tirrea Bede," Night 655
 The Loves of Al-Hayfa and Yusuf (663)(665)(667)(670)(672)
(674)(676)(678)(680)(682) (684)(686)(687)(689)(691)
(693)(694)(696)(698)(700) (702)(703)(705)(707)(709)
o The Three Princes of China (711)(712)(714)(716)
o The Righteous Wazir Wrongfully Gaoled (729)(731)(733)
 o The Cairene Youth, the Barber and the Captain (735)(737)
o The Goodwife of Cairo and Her Four Gallants (739)(741)
 The Tailor and the Lady and the Captain (743)(745)
 The Syrian and the Three Women of Cairo (747)
 The Lady With Two Coyntes (751)
 The Whorish Wife Who Vaunted Her Virtue (754)(755)
o Cœlebs the Droll and His Wife and Her Four Lovers (758)(760)
o The Gatekeeper of Cairo and the Cunning She-Thief (761)(763)(765)
o Tale of Mohsin and Musa (767)(769)(771)
o Mohammed the Shalabi and His Mistress and His Wife (774)(776)(777)
o The Fellah and His Wicked Wife (778)(779)
o The Woman Who Humoured Her Lover At Her Husband's Expense (781)
o The Kazi Schooled By His Wife (783)(785)
o The Merchant's Daughter and the Prince of Al-Irak
(787)(790)(793)(795)(797)(799)(801)(803)(805)(807)(808)(810)(812)(814)(817)(
819)(821)(823)
o Story of the Youth Who Would Futter His Father's Wives
(832)(833)(834)(835)(836)
o Story of the Two Lack-Tacts of Cairo and Damascus (837)(838)(839)(840)
o Tale of Himself Told By the King (912)(913)(914)(915)(916)(917)

 Appendix I - Catalogue of Wortley Montague Manuscript Contents

 Appendix II
o Notes on the Stories Contained in Vol IV of "Supplemental Nights", by W. F.
Kirby
o Notes on the Stories Contained in Vol V of "Supplemental Nights", by W. F.
Kirby

Supplemental Nights, Volume 7


o The Say of Haykar the Sage
o The History of Al-Bundukani or, the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid and the Daughter of
King Kisra
o The Linguist-Dame, The Duenna and the King's Son
o The Tale of the Warlock and the Young Cook of Baghdad
o The Pleasant History of the Cock and the Fox
o History of What Befel the Fowl-let with the Fowler
o The Tale of Attif
o History of Prince Habib and What Befel Him With the Lady Durrat Al-Ghawwas
 The History of Durrat Al-Ghawwas
List of characters within One Thousand and
One Nights
Characters in the frame story
Dunyazad

Dunyazad (also called Dunyazade or Dinazade) (Persian: ‫ )دویازاد‬is a fictional character in One
Thousand and One Nights, the younger sister of the doomed Queen Scheherazade. In the story
cycle, it is she who (at Scheherazade's instruction) initiates the tactic of cliffhanger storytelling to
prevent her sister's execution by Shahryar. At the successful conclusion, she marries Shah
Zaman, Shahryar's younger brother.

She is recast as a major character as the narrator of the Dunyazadiad segment of John Barth's
novel Chimera.

Scheherazade

Main article: Scheherazade

Scheherazade (Persian: ‫ شهرزاد‬Šahrzād) is a legendary Persian queen and the storyteller and
narrator of The Nights. She is the daughter of the kingdom's vizier and sister of Dunyazad
(Persian: ‫)دویازاد‬.

She marries King Shahryar, who has vowed that he will execute a new bride everyday. For 1001
nights, Scheherazade tells her husband a story every night, stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger,
forcing the King to keep her alive for another day.

Scheherazade's Father

Scheherazade's Father, sometimes called Jafar, is the vizier of King Shahryar. Every day, on
the kings order, he beheads the brides of Shahryar. He does this for many years until all the
unmarried women in the kingdom have been either killed or run away, at which point
Scheherazade offers to marry the king.

The vizier tells Scheherazade the Tale of the Bull and the Ass, in an attempt to discourage his
daughter from marrying the mad king. It does not work and she marries Shahryar anyway.

At the end of the 1001 nights, Scheherazade's father goes to Samarkand where he replaces Shah
Zaman as sultan.

Shahryār
Not to be confused with Sharia (Islamic law).
"Shahryar" redirects here. For other uses, see Shahryar (disambiguation).

Shahryār or Shahriār or Shahriyār or Schahryār (Persian: ‫شهريار‬, meaning The Great King) is
the fictional Sassanid King of kings in One Thousand and One Nights, who is told stories by his
wife, Shahrazad.

He ruled over a Persian Empire extended to India, over all the adjacent islands and a great way
beyond the Ganges as far as China, while Shahryār’s younger brother, Shāhzamān (‫ )شاهسمان‬ruled
over Samarkand. There is an anomaly in the story, for the King Shahryār is a Sassanid, and thus
a Zoroastrian and not a Muslim as most of the stories' characters are.

In the frame-story, Shahryār is betrayed by his wife, which makes him go mad and believe that
all women will, in the end, betray him. So every night for three years, the mad king takes a wife
and has her executed the next morning, until he marries Scheherazade, his vizier’s beautiful and
clever daughter. For 1001 nights in a row, Scheherazade tells Shahryār a story, each time
stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger, thus forcing him to keep her alive for another day so that
she can complete the tale the next night.

Shah Zaman

Shah Zaman or Schazzenan is the Sultan of Samarkand, sometimes called Samarcande and
brother of Shahryār. Shah Zaman catches his first wife in bed with a cook and cuts them both in
two. Then, whilst staying with his brother, he discovers that Shahryār's wife is unfaithful. At this
point, Shah Zaman comes to believe that all women are untrustworthy and he returns to
Samarkand where, as his brother does, he marries a new bride every day and has her executed
before morning.

At the end of the story, Shahryār calls for his brother and tells him of Scheherazade's incredible
tales. Shah Zaman decides to stay with his brother and marries Dunyazad, whom he has fallen in
love with.

Characters in Scheherazade's stories

Ahmed

Prince Ahmed is the youngest of three sons of a Sultan of the Indies. He is noted for having a
magic tent which would expand so as to shelter an army, and contract so that it could go into
one's pocket. Ahmed travels to Samarkand city and buys an apple that can cure any disease if the
sick person smells it. Ahmed rescues the Princess Peri Banu (or Paribanou), a genie.

Aladdin

Main article: Aladdin

Aladdin is perhaps one of the most famous characters from the Nights and appears in Aladdin
and The Wonderful Lamp.

Ali Baba

Main article: Ali Baba

Ali Baba (Arabic: ‫علي بابا‬‎) is a character described in the adventure tale of Ali Baba and the Forty
Thieves.

Ali Shar

Ali Shar is a character fromAli Shar and Zumurrud who inherits a large fortune on the death of
his father but very quickly squanders it all. He goes hungry for many months until he sees
Zumurrud on sale in a slave market. Zumurrud gives Ali the money to buy her and the two live
together and fall in love. A year later Zumurrud is kidnapped by a Christian and Ali spend the
rest of the story in search for her.

Mercury Ali

Mercury Ali of Cairo or Ali the Egyptian appears in The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo.
Mercury Ali is a sharper, who repeatedly evaded police (hence the name ”Mercury” or
quicksilver). He traveled to Baghdad, where he tried to outsmart the prominent local tricksters
Dalilah the Crafty, Zurayk the Fishmonger and Azariah the Jew to win the hand of Dalilah's
daughter Zaynab.

Prince Ali

Prince Ali is a son of Sultan of the Indies. He travels to Shiraz, the capital Persia, and buys a
magic perspective glass that can see for hundreds of miles.

The Barber of Baghdad

The Barber of Baghdad is wrongly accused of smuggling and in order to save his life, he tells
Caliph Mustensir Billah of his six brothers:-

 Bacbouc who was hunchback

 Al-Fakik who was toothless
 Al-Bakbuk who was blind
 Al-Kuz who lost one of his eyes
 Al-Haddar who was very lazy
 Shakashik who had a harelip

Cassim
Cassim is the rich brother of Ali Baba who is killed by the Forty Thieves when he is caught
stealing treasure from their magic cave.

Dalilah the Crafty

Dalilah the Crafty or Dalilah the Wily appears in The Rogueries of Dalilah the Crafty and Her
Daughter Zaynab the Coney-Catcher. Dalilah and her daughter Zaynab were left "unemployed
and neglected" after death of her husband, a town-captain of Baghdad. Zaynab persuaded her
mother to "Up and play off some feint and fraud which may haply make us notorious in
Baghdad, so perchance we shall win our father's stipend for ourselves." Dalilah proceeded to
trick and fool people, cheat them out of money, jewellery and other goods. After being caught,
she managed to sell her pursuers into slavery to the Chief of Police. At the end, she was
pardoned by the Caliph and was given important positions of governess of the carrier-pigeons
and portress of the Caliph's Khan.

Duban

For the crater on Saturn's moon Enceladus, see Duban (crater).

Duban appears in The tale of the vizier and the Sage Duban and is a sage described as being a
man of extraordinary talent. The ability to read Greek, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Byzantine,
Syriac and Hebrew, as well as a deep understanding of botany, philosophy and natural history
are only a few.

He cures King Yunan from leprosy. Duban works his medicine in an unusual way: he creates a
mallet and ball to match, filling the handle of the mallet with his medicine. When the king plays
with the ball and mallet, he perspires, thus absorbing the medicine through the sweat from his
hand into his bloodstream. After a short bath and a sleep, the King is cured, and rewards Duban
with wealth and royal honor.

Yunan's vizier, however, becomes jealous of Duban, and persuades Yunan into believing that
Duban will later produce a medicine to kill him. The king eventually decides to punish Duban
for his alleged treachery, and summons him to be beheaded. After unsuccessfully pleading for
his life, Duban offers one of his prized books to Yunan to impart the rest of his wisdom. Yunan
agrees, and the next day, Duban is beheaded, and Yunan begins to open the book, finding that no
printing exists on the paper. After paging through for a time, separating the stuck leaves each
time by first wetting his finger in his mouth, he begins to feel ill. Yunan realises that the leaves
of the book were poisoned, and as he dies, the king understands that this was his punishment for
betraying the one that once saved his life.

Hussain

Prince Hussain, the eldest son of Sultan of the Indies, travels to Bisnagar (Vijayanagara) in
India and buys a magic teleporting tapestry, also known as a magic carpet.

Morgiana
Morgiana is a clever slave girl from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. She is initially in Cassim's
household but on his death she joins Ali Baba and through her quick wittedness she saves Ali's
life many times and eventually kills his worst enemy, the leader of the Forty Thieves. As reward,
Ali frees her and Morgiana marries Cassim's son.

Sinbad the Porter

Sinbad is a poor porter from Baghdad who one day pauses to rest on a bench outside the gate of
a rich merchant's house. The owner of the house is Sinbad the Sailor, who hears the porter's
lament and sends for him. Amused by the fact that they share a name, Sinbad the Sailor relates
the tales of his seven wondrous voyages to his namesake.

Sinbad the Sailor

Main article: Sinbad the Sailor

Sinbad the Sailor is perhaps one of the most famous characters from the Nights. He is from
Basra, but in his old age he lives in Baghdad. He recounts his the tales of his seven voyages to
Sinbad the Porter

Sultan of the Indies

Sultan of the Indies has three sons Husain, Ali and Ahmed. All three want to marry their cousin
Princess Nouronnihar, so the Sultan says he will give her to the prince who brings back the most
extraordinary rare object.

Yunan

King Yunan is a fictional king of one of the ancient Persian cities, in the province of Zuman,
now modern Armenia who appears in The tale of the vizier and the Sage Duban. At the start of
the story, Yunan is suffering from leprosy but he is cured by Duban the physician whom he
rewards greatly. This makes Yunan's vizier becomes jealous and he persuades the King that
Duban wants to overthrow him. At first Yunan doesn’t believe this and tells his vizier the Tale of
the Husband and the Parrot to which the vizier responds by telling the Tale of the Prince and the
Ogress. This convinces Yunan that Duban is guilty and he has him executed. Yunan later dies
after reading a book of Duban's, the pages of which had been poisoned.

Zayn Al-Asnam

Prince Zayn Al-Asnam appears in The Tale of Zayn Al-Asnam. He erects eight statues of gold
(or diamond) and in quest for a statue for the ninth unoccupied pedestal, finding what he wanted
in the person of a beautiful woman for a wife.

Al-Asnam is given a mirror by a Genie. Called the touch-stone of virtue, the mirror would
inform Al-Asnam, upon looking into it, whether his damsel was faithful or not. If the mirror
remained unsullied so was the maiden; if it clouded, the maiden had been unfaithful.
Zumurrud

Zumurrud-the Smaragdine (Persian ‫ زمرد سمرقىدی‬Zumurrud e Samarkandi which means

"emerald from Samarkand". At the time of the story Samarkand have been famous for its
emeralds) is a slave girl who appears in Ali Shar and Zumurrud. She is bought by, and falls in
love with, Ali Shar with whom she lives until she is kidnapped by a Christian. Zumurrud escapes
from the Christian only to be found and taken by Javan (Juvenile) the Kurd. Again, Zumurrud
manages to get away from her captor, this time by dressing up as a man. On her way back to Ali
Shar, Zumurrud is mistaken for a noble Turk and made Queen of an entire kingdom. Eventually,
Zumurrud is reunited with Ali Shar.

Real people
Abu Nuwas

Abu-Nuwas al-Hasan ben Hani al-Hakami was a renowned poet at the court of the Caliph
Haroun al-Rashid. The hedonistic poet appears in several of the tales.

Al-Mustansir

Mustensir Billah (or Al-Mustansir) was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 1226 to 1242.
The Barber of Baghdad tells Mustensir stories of his six brothers.

Al-Mustazi

Az-Zahir (or Al-Mustazi as he’s called in the Nights) was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from
1225 to 1226 and appears in The Hunchback’s Tale.

Harun al-Rashid

Harun al-Rashid, fifth Abbasid Caliph who ruled from 786 until 809. Hārūn the wise Caliph
serves as an important character in many of the stories set in Baghdad, frequently in connection
with his with his vizier, Ja'fa, with whom he roams in disguise through the streets of the city to
observe the lives of the ordinary people.

Ja'far

Ja'far ibn Yahya (Ja'far in the stories) was Harun al-Rashid's Persian Vizier and appears in may
stories, normally accompanying Harun.

Khosrau

Khosrau II was a King of Persia from 590 to 628. He appear with his wife, Shirin, in a story on
the three hundred and ninety-first night called Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman.
Shirin

Shirin the Armenian was the Christian wife of the Sassanid King Khosrau II. She appears with
her husband, Khosrau, in a story on the three hundred and ninety-first night called Khusrau and
Shirin and the Fisherman.
One Thousand and One Nights
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

"Arabian Nights" redirects here. For other uses, see Arabian Nights (disambiguation).

Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: ‫كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة‬‎- kitāb 'alf layla wa-layla; Persian: ‫هزار‬
‫ و یک شة‬- Hezār-o yek šab) is a collection of stories collected over many centuries by various
authors, translators and scholars in various countries. These collections of tales trace their roots
back to ancient Arabia and Yemen, ancient India, ancient Asia Minor, ancient Persia (especially
the Sassanid Hazār Afsān Persian: ‫هسار افسان‬, lit. Thousand Tales), ancient Egypt, ancient
Mesopotamian Mythology, ancient Syria, and medieval Arabic folk stories from the Caliphate
era. Though the oldest Arabic manuscript dates from the fourteenth century, scholarship
generally dates the collection's genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900.

What is common throughout all the editions of The Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler
Shahryar (from Persian: ‫ شهريار‬generally meaning king or sovereign) and his wife Scheherazade
(from Persian: ‫ شهرزادي‬generally meaning townswoman) and the framing device incorporated
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 1001 or more "nights."

The collection, or at least certain stories drawn from it (or purporting to be drawn from it)
became widely known in the West during the nineteenth century, after it was translated - first
into French and then English and other European languages. At this time it acquired the English
name The Arabian Nights' Entertainment or simply Arabian Nights.

The best known stories from The Nights include "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp," "Ali Baba and the
Forty Thieves," and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor." Ironically these particular
stories, while they are most probably genuine Middle Eastern folk tales, were not part of the
"Nights" in its Arabic versions, but were interpolated into the collection by its early European
translators.
 o

Synopsis
See also: List of stories within The Book of One Thousand and One Nights

"The Sultan Pardons Scheherazade", by Arthur Boyd Houghton (1836-1875)

The main frame story concerns a Persian king and his new bride. The king, Shahryar, upon
discovering his former wife's infidelity has her executed and then declares all women to be
unfaithful. He begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning.
Eventually the vizier 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 tells the king a tale, but does not end it. The king is thus forced to keep her alive in
order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only
begins) another. So it goes for 1,001 nights.

The tales vary widely: they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems,
burlesques and various forms of erotica. Numerous stories depict djinn, magicians, and
legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography; the historical
caliph Harun al-Rashid is a common protagonist, as are his alleged court poet Abu Nuwas and
his vizier, Ja'far al-Barmaki. 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.
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, in some parts of the full text Scheherazade stops her narration in
the middle of an exposition of abstract philosophical principles or complex points of Islamic
philosophy, and in one case during a detailed description of human anatomy according to
Galen—and in all these cases turns out to be justified in her belief that the king's curiosity about
the sequel would buy her another day of life.

History and editions

Early influences

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

The tales in the collection can be traced to the Indian, Persian, Egyptian, and Arab ancient
storytelling traditions.[1] Many stories from Indian and Persian folklore parallel the tales [2] as well
as Jewish sources.[3] These tales were probably in circulation before they were collected and
codified into a single collection. This work was further shaped by scribes, storytellers, and
scholars and evolved into a collection of three distinct layers of storytelling by the 15th
century:[1]

1. Persian tales influenced by Indian folklore and adapted into Arabic by the 10th century.
2. Stories recorded in Baghdad during the 10th century.
3. Medieval Egyptian folklore.

The Indian folklore is represented by certain animal stories, which reflect influence from ancient
Sanskrit fables. The influence of the Baital Pachisi as well as The Panchatantra is notable.[4] The
Jataka Tales are a collection of 547 Buddhist stories, which are for the most part moral stories
with an ethical purpose. The Tale of the Bull and the Ass and the linked Tale of the Merchant and
his Wife are found in the frame stories of both the Jataka and the Arabian Nights. [5]

The influence from the folklore of Baghdad is represented by the tales of the Abbasid caliphs;
the Cairene influence is made evident by Maruf the cobbler. Tales such as Iram of the columns
are based upon the pre-Islamic legends of the Arabian peninsula; motifs are employed from the
ancient Mesopotamian tale of Gilgamesh. Possible Greek influences have also been noted.[6]

Versions

The first European version of the Book of the Thousand and One Nights (1704-1717) was
translated into French by Antoine Galland from an Arabic text and other sources.[2] This 12-
volume book, Les Mille et une nuits, contes arabes traduits en français ("Thousand and one
nights, Arab stories translated into French"), included stories that were not in the original Arabic
manuscript. "Aladdin's Lamp" and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" appeared first in Galland's
translation and cannot be found in any of the original manuscripts. He wrote that he heard them
from a Syrian Christian storyteller from Aleppo, a Maronite scholar whom he called "Hanna
Diab."

Galland's version of the Nights were immensely popular throughout Europe, and later versions of
the Nights were written by Galland's publisher using Galland's name without his consent.

A well-known English translation is that by Sir Richard Francis Burton, entitled The Book of the
Thousand Nights and a Night (1885). Unlike previous editions his ten-volume translation was
not bowdlerized. Though printed in the Victorian era it contained all the erotic nuances of the
source material replete with sexual imagery and pederastic allusions added as appendices to the
main stories by Burton. Burton circumvented strict Victorian laws on obscene material by
printing a private edition for subscribers only rather than publicly publishing the book. His
original ten volumes were followed by a further six entitled The Supplemental Nights to the
Thousand Nights and a Night, which were printed between 1886 and 1888.

Poster for a Russian production of 1001 nights.

Recent versions of the Nights include that of the French doctor J. C. Mardrus, translated into
English by Powys Mathers, and, notably, a critical edition based on the 14th century Syrian
manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, compiled in Arabic by Muhsin Mahdi and rendered
into English by Husain Haddawy, by and large the best English language version to date.

In 2005, Brazilian scholar Mamede Mustafa Jarouche started publishing a thorough Portuguese
translation of the work, based on the comparative analysis of a series of different Arabic
manuscripts. The first three volumes of a planned five- or six-volume set have already been
released, comprising the complete Syrian branch of the book (volumes 1 and 2) and part of the
later Egyptian branch (volume 3 and onwards). [7]

Timeline

Arabic Manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights back to the 1300s

Scholars have assembled a timeline concerning the publication history of The Nights:[8][9]

 Oldest Arabic manuscript (a few handwritten pages) from Syria dating to the early 800s
discovered by scholar Nabia Abbott in 1948.

 900s AD — Mention of The Nights in Ibn Al-Nadim's "Fihrist" (Catalogue of books) in

Baghdad. He mentions the book's history and its Persian origins.

 900s — Second oldest reference to The Nights in Muruj Al-Dhahab (Meadows of Gold)
by Al-Masudi.

 1000s AD — Mention of the original Persian name of the One Thousands and One
Nights by Qatran Tabrizi in the following couplet in Persian:

‫هسار ري صفت هفت خىان و رويیه دژ‬

‫هسار افسان فرو شىیدم و خىاودم مه از‬

A thousand times, accounts of Rouyin Dezh and Haft Khān

I heard and read from Hezār Afsān (literally Thousand Fables)

 1300s — Existing Syrian manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (contains

about 300 tales).

 1704 — Antoine Galland's French translation is the first European version of The Nights.
Later volumes were introduced using Galland's name though the stories were written by
 unknown persons at the behest of the publisher wanting to capitalize on the popularity of
the collection.

 1706 — An anonymously translated version in English appears in Europe dubbed the

"Grub Street" version.

 1775 — Egyptian version of The Nights called "ZER" (Hermann Zotenberg's Egyptian
Recension) with 200 tales (no surviving edition exists).

 1814 — Calcutta I, the earliest existing Arabic printed version, is published by the British
East India Company. A second volume was released in 1818. Both had 100 tales each.

 1825-1838 — The Breslau/Habicht edition is published in Arabic in 8 volumes. Christian

Maxmilian Habicht (born in Breslau, Germany, 1775) collaborated with the Tunisian
Murad Al-Najjar and created this edition containing 1001 stories. Using versions of The
Nights, tales from Al-Najjar, and other stories from unknown origins Habicht published
his version in Arabic and German.

 1842-1843 — Four additional volumes by Habicht.

 1835 Bulaq version — These two volumes, printed by the Egyptian government, are the
oldest printed (by a publishing house) version of The Nights in Arabic by a non-
European. It is primarily a reprinting of the ZER text.

 1839-1842 — Calcutta II (4 volumes) is published. It claims to be based on an older

Egyptian manuscript (which was never found). This version contains many elements and
stories from the Habicht edition.

 1838 — Torrens version in English.

 1838-1840 — Edward William Lane publishes an English translation. Notable for its
exclusion of content Lane found "immoral" and for its anthropological notes on Arab
customs by Lane.

 1882-1884 — John Payne publishes an English version translated entirely from Calcutta
II, adding some tales from Calcutta I and Breslau.

 1885-1888 — Sir Richard Francis Burton publishes an English translation from several
sources. His version accentuated the sexuality of the stories vis-à-vis Lane's bowdlerized
translation.

 1889-1904 — J. C. Mardrus publishes a French version using Bulaq and Calcutta II

editions.

 1984 — Muhsin Mahdi publishes an Arabic translation he says is faithful to the oldest
Arabic versions surviving.
  1990s — Husain Haddawy publishes an English translation of Mahdi.

The Nights in world culture

Literature

The influence of the versions of The Nights on world literature is immense. Writers as diverse as
Henry Fielding to Naguib Mahfouz have alluded to the work by name in their own literature.

Examples of this influence include:

 Edgar Allan Poe wrote a "Thousand and Second Night" as a separate tale, called "The
Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade." It depicts the 8th and final voyage of
Sinbad the Sailor, along with the various mysteries Sinbad and his crew encounter; the
anomalies are then described as footnotes to the story. While the king is uncertain—
except in the case of the elephants carrying the world on the back of the turtle—that these
mysteries are real, they are actual modern events that occurred in various places during,
or before, Poe's lifetime. The story ends with the king in such disgust at the tale
Scheherazade has just woven, that he has her executed the very next day.

 Bill Willingham, creator of the comic book series Fables, used the story of The Nights as
the basis of his Fables prequel, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall. In the book, Snow
White tells the tales of the Fables, magical literary characters, to the sultan in order to
avoid her impending death.

 Two notable novels loosely based on The Nights are Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib
Mahfouz and When Dreams Travel by Githa Hariharan. The children's book The
Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey is also loosely derived from The Nights.

 The Nights has also inspired poetry in English. Two examples are Alfred Tennyson's
poem, "Recollections of the Arabian Nights" (1830) and William Wordsworth's "The
Prelude" (1805).

 The Book of One Thousand and One Nights has an estranged cousin: The Manuscript
Found in Saragossa, by Jan Potocki. A Polish noble of the late 18th century, he traveled
the Orient looking for an original edition of The Nights, but never found it. Upon
returning to Europe, he wrote his masterpiece, a multi-leveled frame tale.

 The book is often referenced in numerous works of Jorge Luis Borges.

 John Barth has alluded to The Nights or referenced it explicitly in many of his works,
such as The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor. Scheherazade appears as a character in
The Tidewater Tales.
  It also greatly influence famed horror and science fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft in his
early years as a child in which he would imagine himself living the adventures of the
heroes in the book. It also inspired him to come up with his famed Necronomicon.

 In his criticism of mainstream cinema in "Metaphors on Vision," avant-garde filmmaker

Stan Brakhage metaphorically compares Hollywood studio film making to
Scheherazade's tales, calling it the, "... heroine of a thousand and one nights
(Scheherazade must surely be the muse of this art)..."

 In 2005 playwright Jason Grote used the literary device of One Thousand and One
Arabian Nights to create 1001, combining the traditional Scheherazade story with literary
and pop culture allusions ranging from Flaubert in Egypt, Jorge Luis Borges, Alfred
Hitchcock's Vertigo, and Michael Jackson's Thriller. The main characters alternate
between playing Scheherazade and Shahriyar and the Palestinian Dahna and the Jewish
Alan, who are college students in love in modern New York. The play was premiered in
Denver in 2006 and opened in New York City in October 2007 to strong reviews.
 In 2005 novelist Joseph Covino Jr adapted tales from the classical 1001 Nights in two
parts of an intended trilogy titled "Arabian Nights Lost: Celestial Verses 1&II."[1], [2]

Film and television

Mili Avital as Scheherazade and Dougray Scott as Shahryar, in the ABC/BBC Miniseries
Arabian Nights.

There have been many adaptations of The Nights for both television and cinema.

The atmosphere of The Nights influenced such films as Fritz Lang's 1921 Der müde Tod, the
1924 Hollywood film The Thief of Bagdad starring Douglas Fairbanks, and its 1940 British
remake. Several stories served as source material for The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926),
the oldest surviving feature-length animated film.
One of Hollywood's first feature films to be based on The Nights was in 1942, with the movie
called Arabian Nights. It starred Maria Montez as Scheherazade, Sabu Dastagir as Ali Ben Ali
and Jon Hall as Harun al-Rashid. The storyline bears virtually no resemblance to the traditional
version of the book. In the film, Scheherazade is a dancer who attempts to overthrow Caliph
Harun al-Rashid and marry his brother. After Scheherazade’s initial coup attempt fails and she is
sold into slavery, many adventures then ensue. Maria Montez and Jon Hall also starred in the
1944 film Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

In 1959 UPA released an animated feature about Mr. Magoo, based on 1001 Arabian Nights.

Osamu Tezuka worked on two (very loose) feature film adaptations, the children's film Sinbad
no Bōken in 1962 and then Senya Ichiya Monogatari in 1969, an adult-oriented animated feature
film.

The most commercially successful movie based on The Nights was Aladdin, the 1992 animated
movie by the Walt Disney Company, which starred the voices of Scott Weinger and Robin
Williams. The film led to several sequels and a television series of the same name.

"The Voyages of Sinbad" has been adapted for television and film several times, most recently in
the 2003 animated feature Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, featuring the voices of Brad Pitt
and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Perhaps the most famous Sinbad film was the 1958 movie The
Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, produced by the stop-motion animation pioneer Ray Harryhausen.

A recent well-received television adaptation was the Emmy Award-winning miniseries Arabian
Nights, directed by Steve Barron and starring Mili Avital as Scheherazade and Dougray Scott as
Shahryar. It was originally shown over two nights on April 30, and May 1, 2000 on ABC in the
United States and BBC One in the United Kingdom.

Other notable versions of The Nights include the famous 1974 Italian movie Il fiore delle mille e
una notte by Pier Paolo Pasolini and the 1990 French movie Les 1001 nuits, in which Catherine
Zeta-Jones made her debut playing Scheherazade. There are also numerous Bollywood movies
inspired by the book, including Aladdin and Sinbad. In this version the two heroes meet and
share in each other's adventures; the djinn of the lamp is female, and Aladdin marries her rather
than the princess.

Music

 In 1888, Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov completed his Op. 35

Scheherazade, in four movements, based upon four of the tales from The Nights: "The
Sea and Sinbad's Ship," "The Kalendar Prince," "The Young Prince and The Young
Princess," and "Festival at Baghdad."

 There have been several Arabian Nights musicals and operettas, either based on
particular tales or drawing on the general atmosphere of the book. Most notable are Chu
Chin Chow (1916) and Kismet (1953), not to mention several musicals and innumerable
pantomimes on the story of "Aladdin."
  1990 saw the premiere of La Noche de las Noches, a work for string quartet and
electronics by Ezequiel Viñao (based on a reading from Burton's "Book of the Thousand
Nights and a Night")[10]

 In 1975, the band Renaissance released an album called Scheherazade and Other Stories.
The second half of this album consists entirely of the "Song of Scheherazade," an
orchestral-rock composition based on the The Nights.

 In 1999, power metal band Kamelot included a song on their album The Fourth Legacy
called "Nights of Arabia".

 In 2003, Nordic experimental indie pop group When released an album called Pearl
Harvest with lyrics from The Nights.

 In 2007, Japanese pop duo BENNIE K released a single titled "1001 Nights," also
releasing a music video strongly based around the The Nights.

 In 2007, the Finnish Symphonic Metal band Nightwish wrote a song "Sahara" on their
album Dark Passion Play which relates to the 1001 Nights stories.[11]

 2008 saw the birth of Australian metalcore band, Ebony Horse, named after the tale "The
Ebony Horse."

See also: List of stories within The Book of One Thousand and One Nights

Games

 The setting of the 1990 EGA PC adventure game Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire is
based on The Nights.

 The Nights is the basis for the story of the video game Sonic and the Secret Rings. In the
story, Sonic the Hedgehog is pulled in to the story by Shahra The Ring Genie in order to
save the Arabian Nights which is being erased by the main villain Erazor Djinn. Erazor
was once the "Genie of the Lamp" from the story "Aladdin," who was also responsible
for turning King Solomon into a skeleton. Other recurring Sonic characters turn up as
characters from the Nights, such as Tails as Ali Baba, Knuckles as Sinbad, and Doctor
Eggman as King Shahryār.

 The first expansion set for Magic: The Gathering was "Arabian Nights," containing cards
based on and inspired by One Thousand and One Nights. This included a card called
"Shahrazad" which required the two players to play a separate game within the current
game.

 Jordan Mechner stated that The Nights was an inspiration of his popular Prince of Persia
series.
 The Magic of Scheherazade takes its title from the female protagonist.

 1,001 Nights, a storytelling game by Meguey Baker, puts the players in the roles of
courtiers in the Sultan's palace who are forbidden to leave for various reasons. To pass
the time, they take turns telling stories and casting each other as various characters in the
tales as they attempt to earn enough favor in the court to win their freedom.