| rdfs:comment | - The tales involve traditional stories, filled with fantastical creatures such as ghouls and djinn, sometimes incorporating historical figures, sorcery and magic. Some famous tales in the Arabian Nights include Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
- One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: كِتَاب أَلْف لَيْلَة وَلَيْلَة kitāb ʾalf layla wa-layla) is a compilation of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories, written down in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age.
- One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of folk tales and other stories. 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. Some of the best-known 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, were not part of The Nights in Arabic versions, but were interpolated into the collection by its early European translators.
- The standard Arabic text of One Thousand and One Nights today is the work of a series of anonymous authors writing over a period of more than a thousand years. The framing story of Scheherazade probably originated in 6th century India, later being passed on to Pre-Islamic Persia and then to Arabia. The collection was first referred to as One Thousand and one Nights in the 12th century, although at that time only a few hundred nights' worth of tales were included in it. The number of stories in the collection gradually increased, reaching its present form in 18th century Cairo. It is clear that One Thousand and One Nights is the work of several hands from the different moral attitudes taken in the various tales, some take a strict censorious tone whereas others celebrate low-lifes and descr
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| abstract | - The standard Arabic text of One Thousand and One Nights today is the work of a series of anonymous authors writing over a period of more than a thousand years. The framing story of Scheherazade probably originated in 6th century India, later being passed on to Pre-Islamic Persia and then to Arabia. The collection was first referred to as One Thousand and one Nights in the 12th century, although at that time only a few hundred nights' worth of tales were included in it. The number of stories in the collection gradually increased, reaching its present form in 18th century Cairo. It is clear that One Thousand and One Nights is the work of several hands from the different moral attitudes taken in the various tales, some take a strict censorious tone whereas others celebrate low-lifes and describe sexual practices which are frowned on by Islam in explicit detail. More tales have been added to One Thousand and One Nights by French and English translators. Today, outside of the Arab world, the best known stories from the collection are "Aladdin", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor". Although they are genuine Arabic folktales, they do not appear in any Arabic-language manuscript of One Thousand and One Nights.
- The tales involve traditional stories, filled with fantastical creatures such as ghouls and djinn, sometimes incorporating historical figures, sorcery and magic. Some famous tales in the Arabian Nights include Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
- One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of folk tales and other stories. 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. The original concept is most likely derived from a pre-Islamic Persian prototype that probably relied partly on Indian elements, but the work as we have it was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators and scholars across the Middle East and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hazār Afsān. 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 Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryar (from Persian: شهريار, meaning "king" or "sovereign") and his wife Scheherazade (from Persian: شهرزاده, 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 1,001 or more. Some of the best-known 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, were not part of The Nights in Arabic versions, but were interpolated into the collection by its early European translators.
- One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: كِتَاب أَلْف لَيْلَة وَلَيْلَة kitāb ʾalf layla wa-layla) is a compilation of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories, written down in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. Its collection took place over many centuries and countries, and many of the tales can be traced back to folk stories in the Caliphate era and others from the Persian "A Thousand Tales." Some of the tales, including "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor" were added by European translators. The first English edition in 1706 titled it The Arabian Nights' Entertainment, causing it to also be frequently known as the Arabian Nights. Several of the stories, including the frame story, have Persian origins. Early mentions of the Nights call it an Arabic translation of a Persian book, Hazār Afsān, "The Thousand Stories," which involves a king killing all of his wives after their wedding night until one starts telling stories to delay her execution. However, there is no surviving evidence of this book, so any further information has been lost.
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