Appreciated and revered by generations of readers and folklore lovers the Arabian Nights or the One Thousand and One Nights remains one of the world’s foremost literary masterpieces. Renowned the world over as a valuable source and historic record of sorts regarding the medieval Islamic period, the text and its mesmerizing tales are also seen as a window through which to explore Middle Eastern culture and its socio-historical identity.
The Arabian Nights is popular throughout the world but its subject matter and setting is of course a region of great mystique, tradition and heritage that is commonly referred to as the Middle East. Some of the more popular tales in the Arabian Nights are of course fairytale staples such as Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp, and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor which have been converted into Disney and Hollywood films of great repute due to the inherent entertainment values embedded in to the stories. Employing various literary forms such as poetry, chants, songs, riddles, annotations, speeches, hymns and lamentations the tales are as varied a collection of folk tales as one can come across in the ancient world. The stories themselves may be divided into tragedies, romances, comedies, historical records, poems and even burlesques with a good helping of supernatural elements in the form of magicians, sorcerers, ghouls and legendary locations across the Arabian Peninsula taking centre stage.
The frame story of One Thousand and One Nights is the tale of Queen Scheherazade entertaining King Shahryār with the mystical stories in order to prevent her execution the following day. Embittered by royal infidelity King Shahryār was known to execute his wives after the wedding night to prevent the women from betraying him.
The stories are known as new bride Scheherazade’s ploy to postpone her inevitable execution by enchanting the monarch with the stories she weaves which incidentally continue for a record 1001 nights according to legend. Believed to have originated as far back as the 9th century the folk tales of the Arabian Nights have survived the test of time due to the unique story-telling elements and techniques used in the narrative as well as the mystical and magical nature of the alluring tales that speak of flying carpets and bottled genies in the same breath with moral lessons and the eternal battle between good and evil.
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