The Arabian Nights: One Thousand and One Nights

The Arabian Nights: One Thousand and One Nights
Summary
The Arabian Nights is a collection of tales from the Islamic Golden Age, compiled by
various authors over many hundreds of years.
Though each collection features different stories, they are all centered around the frame story
of the sultan Shahrayar and his wife, Scheherazade. After finding out that his first wife is
unfaithful, Shahrayar kills her and swears to marry a different woman each night before killing
her the following morning to prevent further betrayal. Scheherazade, his vizier's daughter,
concocts a plan to end this pattern. She marries Shahrayar, and then begins to tell him a story that
night. However, she stops the story in the middle, so that he will be excited to hear the rest the
following night. The next evening, she finishes that story and then begins another, following the
same pattern for 1,001 nights, until Shahrayar has a change of heart. The stories she tells
comprise the collection.
"Aladdin's Lamp" tells of a peasant boy who is tricked by an evil magician into retrieving a
magic genie lamp from a cave. However, Aladdin outsmarts him, keeping the lamp for himself.
Through the genie's power, Aladdin grows rich and marries the sultan's daughter. When the
magician steals the lamp back, Aladdin and his wife thwart and kill the villain. The magician's
brother then attempts to avenge the dead man, but is equally defeated, so that Aladdin lives
happily ever after.
In "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," hardworking Ali Baba stumbles upon a thieves' hideout
full of treasure, protected by a magic entry. When Ali Baba accidentally reveals the secret to his
richer brother Cassim, Cassim gets trapped in the hideout, and killed by the thieves. The
villains then try to track down and kill Ali Baba, but their plans are consistently thwarted by the
quick-witted slave Morgiana.
In "The Three Apples," a fisherman finds a chest in the ocean containing a woman's body. Both
her father and her husband try to take the blame, but the caliph discerns that the husband had
killed her, believing her unfaithful. He had brought her three rare apples when she was sick, then
got mad when he saw a slave with one of the apples, claiming he had received the fruit from his
girlfriend. Believing the slave, he killed the woman. He then learned that his son had actually
given the apple to the slave, who then lied to stir up trouble. The ruler's vizier Ja'far ascertains
that his own slave is the culprit, and the caliph pardons everyone.
"The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor" are told by a famous sailor to an impoverished
porter, to explain the trials and tribulations that the sailor suffered at sea. Over the course of his
seven voyages, Sinbad faced: various shipwrecks; strange beasts such as giant eagles, rocs, and
giants; malicious figures such as the Old Man of the Sea; and many other obstacles. Even
though he dealt with danger on every voyage, Sinbad continued to sail, lured by the thrill and
excitement of the sea. Finally, after seven voyages, he decided to settle down with his wealth.
"The Fisherman and the Jinni" tells the story of a fisherman whose nets retrieve a yellow jar from
the sea. He opens it to release a dangerous genie, who has been trapped for hundreds of years and
had decided to kill the man who rescues him. The fisherman tricks the genie into returning to the
jar, and then tells him the story of "The Vizier and the Sage Duban," detailed below. After the
story, the genie promises to reward the fisherman, and indeed shows him a magic lake full of
strange fish. The fisherman sells the fish to the sultan, who explores the area of the lake to meet a
sad prince who had been turned half to stone. He helps the prince, and then rewards everyone
involved.
In "The Vizier and the Sage Duban," a wise healer named Duban heals King Yunan's leprosy,
but Yunan's vizier convinces the king that Duban is out to kill him. Yunan has Duban executed
on that suspicion, and Duban gifts him a magic book before he dies. After the wise man is
beheaded, the king flips through the book, and then dies himself from a poison that Duban has
left on its pages.
Finally, "The Three Princes and the Princes Nouronnihar" details the journeys of three brother
princes who each wants to marry their cousin Nouronnihar. Their father, the Grand Sultan,
promises that whichever brother finds the most valuable item will win the woman's hand. They
each find amazing items - a magic carpet that transports its owner, a tube that shows whatever
the viewer wishes, and an apple that heals anyone. When the brothers learn that Nouronnihar is
ill, they pool the items and manage to save her life.

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