The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights

Download The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108425364
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights by : David Ghanim

Download or read book The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights written by David Ghanim and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-12 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively discussion of the sexual life contained in the Arabian Nights, appealing to academics and general readers.

The Arabian Nights Reader

Download The Arabian Nights Reader PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780814332597
Total Pages : 398 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (325 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Arabian Nights Reader by : Ulrich Marzolph

Download or read book The Arabian Nights Reader written by Ulrich Marzolph and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arabian Nights commands a place in world literature unrivaled by any other fictional work of "Oriental" provenance. Bringing together Indian, Iranian, and Arabic tradition, this collection of tales became popular in the Western world during the eighteenth century and has since exerted a profound influence on theater, opera, music, painting, architecture, and literature. The Arabian Nights Reader offers an authoritative guide to the research inspired by this rich and intricate work. Through a selection of sixteen influential and currently relevant essays, culled from decades of scholarship, this volume encompasses the most salient research topics to date, from the Nights' early history to interpretations of such famous characters as Sheherazade. While serious research on the Nights began early in the nineteenth century, some of the most puzzling aspects of the collection's complex history and character were solved only quite recently. This volume's topics reflect the makings of a transnational narrative: evidence of a ninth-century version of the Nights, the work's circulation among booksellers in twelfth-century Cairo, the establishment of a "canonical" text, the sources used by the French translator who introduced the Nights to the West and the dating of this French translation, the influence of Greek literature on the Nights, the genre of romance, the relationship between narration and survival within the plots, reception of the Nights from the nineteenth century onward, interpretations of single stories from the collection, the universal nature of the sexual politics surrounding Sheherazade, and the repercussion of the Nights in modern Arabic literature. As this collection demonstrates, the Arabian Nights helped shape Western perceptions of the "Orient" as the quintessential "Other" while serving to inspire Western creativity. The research presented here not only deepens our insight into this great work but also heightens our awareness of the powerful communal forces of transnational narrative.

The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights

Download The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Liveright Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1631493647
Total Pages : 986 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (314 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights by : Paulo Lemos Horta

Download or read book The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights written by Paulo Lemos Horta and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 986 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A]n electric new translation . . . Each page is adorned with illustrations and photographs from other translations and adaptations of the tales, as well as a wonderfully detailed cascade of notes that illuminate the stories and their settings. . . . The most striking feature of the Arabic tales is their shifting registers—prose, rhymed prose, poetry—and Seale captures the movement between them beautifully.” —Yasmine Al-Sayyad, New Yorker A magnificent and richly illustrated volume—with a groundbreaking translation framed by new commentary and hundreds of images—of the most famous story collection of all time. A cornerstone of world literature and a monument to the power of storytelling, the Arabian Nights has inspired countless authors, from Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe to Naguib Mahfouz, Clarice Lispector, and Angela Carter. Now, in this lavishly designed and illustrated edition of The Annotated Arabian Nights, the acclaimed literary historian Paulo Lemos Horta and the brilliant poet and translator Yasmine Seale present a splendid new selection of tales from the Nights, featuring treasured original stories as well as later additions including “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp” and “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” and definitively bringing the Nights out of Victorian antiquarianism and into the twenty-first century. For centuries, readers have been haunted by the homicidal King Shahriyar, thrilled by gripping tales of Sinbad’s seafaring adventures, and held utterly, exquisitely captive by Shahrazad’s stories of passionate romances and otherworldly escapades. Yet for too long, the English-speaking world has relied on dated translations by Richard Burton, Edward Lane, and other nineteenth-century adventurers. Seale’s distinctly contemporary and lyrical translations break decisively with this masculine dynasty, finally stripping away the deliberate exoticism of Orientalist renderings while reclaiming the vitality and delight of the stories, as she works with equal skill in both Arabic and French. Included within are famous tales, from “The Story of Sinbad the Sailor” to “The Story of the Fisherman and the Jinni,” as well as lesser-known stories such as “The Story of Dalila the Crafty,” in which the cunning heroine takes readers into the everyday life of merchants and shopkeepers in a crowded metropolis, and “The Story of the Merchant and the Jinni,” an example of a ransom frame tale in which stories are exchanged to save a life. Grounded in the latest scholarship, The Annotated Arabian Nights also incorporates the Hanna Diyab stories, for centuries seen as French forgeries but now acknowledged, largely as a result of Horta’s pathbreaking research, as being firmly rooted in the Arabic narrative tradition. Horta not only takes us into the astonishing twists and turns of the stories’ evolution. He also offers comprehensive notes on just about everything readers need to know to appreciate the tales in context, and guides us through the origins of ghouls, jinn, and other supernatural elements that have always drawn in and delighted readers. Beautifully illustrated throughout with art from Europe and the Arab and Persian world, the latter often ignored in English-language editions, The Annotated Arabian Nights expands the visual dimensions of the stories, revealing how the Nights have always been—and still are—in dialogue with fine artists. With a poignant autobiographical foreword from best-selling novelist Omar El Akkad and an illuminating afterword on the Middle Eastern roots of Hanna Diyab’s tales from noted scholar Robert Irwin, Horta and Seale have created a stunning edition of the Arabian Nights that will enchant and inform both devoted and novice readers alike.

Stranger Magic

Download Stranger Magic PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674065077
Total Pages : 577 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Stranger Magic by : Marina Warner

Download or read book Stranger Magic written by Marina Warner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-03 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our foremost theorist of myth, fairytale, and folktale explores the magical realm of the imagination where carpets fly and genies grant prophetic wishes. Stranger Magic examines the profound impact of the Arabian Nights on the West, the progressive exoticization of magic, and the growing acceptance of myth and magic in contemporary experience.

Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

Download Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141395052
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (413 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange by :

Download or read book Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange written by and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the shrouded corpse hung a tablet of green topaz with the inscription: 'I am Shaddad the Great. I conquered a thousand cities; a thousand white elephants were collected for me; I lived for a thousand years and my kingdom covered both east and west, but when death came to me nothing of all that I had gathered was of any avail. You who see me take heed: for Time is not to be trusted.' Dating from at least a millennium ago, these are the earliest known Arabic short stories, surviving in a single, ragged manuscript in a library in Istanbul. Some found their way into The Arabian Nights but most have never been read in English before. Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange has monsters, lost princes, jewels beyond price, a princess turned into a gazelle, sword-wielding statues and shocking reversals of fortune.

The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia [2 volumes]

Download The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia [2 volumes] PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 185109640X
Total Pages : 950 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia [2 volumes] by : Ulrich Marzolph

Download or read book The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia [2 volumes] written by Ulrich Marzolph and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2004-08-24 with total page 950 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive treatment of the Arabian Nights ever published, with more than 800 detailed encyclopedic entries and a wealth of authoritative essays and resources. The tales of the Arabian Nights have long been the focus of scholarly research and critique, but no English language work has ever attempted an all-embracing treatment of them. The fruit of years of research, The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia is the first comprehensive reference work introducing both the Arabian Nights and the context of their genesis and aftermath in Near Eastern, European, and world culture. Editors Ulrich Marzolph, one of the world's foremost scholars of Near Eastern narrative culture, and Richard van Leeuwen, a prominent scholar of the Arabian Nights, present detailed, authoritative, and up-to-date research on virtually all aspects of the tales, including major protagonists, themes, important translations, textual history, adaptations, reworkings, works inspired by the Arabian Nights, and aspects of literary theory, and provide extensive bibliographies for each tale. In addition to the 800+ encyclopedic entries and numerous essays, the work introduces research that has not previously been published, making it an invaluable resource to scholars, educators, students, and the general public, as well as an essential addition to the core collection of academic and public libraries.

The Arabian Nights

Download The Arabian Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Barefoot Books
ISBN 13 : 1782854681
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (828 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Arabian Nights by : Wafa' Tarnowska

Download or read book The Arabian Nights written by Wafa' Tarnowska and published by Barefoot Books. This book was released on 2018-09-01 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Lebanese writer Wafa' Tarnowska and Spanish artist Carole Hénaff, this magnificent new edition of The Arabian Nights brings together famous and less familiar tales from A Thousand and One Nights and includes the frame story of Shahrazade and Shahriyar.

Arabian Nights and Days

Download Arabian Nights and Days PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 1101974710
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Arabian Nights and Days by : Naguib Mahfouz

Download or read book Arabian Nights and Days written by Naguib Mahfouz and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2016-06-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz refashions the classic tales of Scheherazade into a novel written in his own imaginative, spellbinding style. Here are genies and flying carpets, Aladdin and Sinbad, Ali Baba, and many other familiar stories from the tradition of The One Thousand and One Nights, made new by the magical pen of the acknowledged dean of Arabic letters, who plumbs their depths for timeless truths.

The Arabian Nights

Download The Arabian Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Modern Library
ISBN 13 : 0307417018
Total Pages : 914 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Arabian Nights by :

Download or read book The Arabian Nights written by and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2009-08-26 with total page 914 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance, The Arabian Nights has enthralled readers for centuries. These are the tales that saved the life of Shahrazad, whose husband, the king, executed each of his wives after a single night of marriage. Beginning an enchanting story each evening, Shahrazad always withheld the ending: A thousand and one nights later, her life was spared forever. This volume reproduces the 1932 Modern Library edition, for which Bennett A. Cerf chose the most famous and representative stories from Sir Richard F. Burton's multivolume translation, and includes Burton's extensive and acclaimed explanatory notes. These tales, including Alaeddin; or, the Wonderful Lamp, Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Landsman, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, have entered into the popular imagination, demonstrating that Shahrazad's spell remains unbroken.

The arabian nights

Download The arabian nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 91 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (418 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The arabian nights by : Andrew Lang

Download or read book The arabian nights written by Andrew Lang and published by BoD - Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-11-06 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Arabian Nights," also known as "One Thousand and One Nights," is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales and stories compiled and translated by various authors over centuries. While Andrew Lang is known for his colorful translations of folklore, he is not the primary translator or compiler of "The Arabian Nights." The collection is derived from various sources and has been translated by many individuals over time. "The Arabian Nights" includes famous tales such as "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp," "Sindbad the Sailor," and many others. These stories are set in the Islamic Golden Age and feature a mix of adventure, fantasy, and romance. They have had a profound influence on world literature and storytelling. Andrew Lang, a Scottish author and folklorist, is better known for his collections of fairy tales, including the "Colored Fairy Books" series. While he contributed to the world of folklore and fairy tales, his work primarily consisted of translations and adaptations rather than being the principal translator or compiler of "The Arabian Nights."

The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective

Download The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780814332870
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (328 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective by : Ulrich Marzolph

Download or read book The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective written by Ulrich Marzolph and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a 2004 meeting marking the Arabian Nights' tercentennial at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenb'ttel, Germany, nineteen international scholars presented their work on the transnational aspects of the Arabian Nights. This volume collects their papers, whose topics range from the history of the Arabian Nights manuscripts, to positioning the Nights in modern and postmodern discourse, to the international reception of the Nights in written and oral tradition. Essays are arranged in five sections. The first section contains essays on Galland's translation and its "continuation" by Jacques Cazotte. The second section treats specific characteristics of the Nights, including manuscript tradition, the transformations of a specific narrative pattern occurring in the Nights and other works of medieval Arabic literature, the topic of siblings in the Nights, and the political thought mirrored in the Nights. The essays in the third section deal with framing in relation to the classical Indian collection Panchatantra and as a general cultural technique, with particular attention to storytelling in the oral tradition of the Indian Ocean islands off the African coast. The two concluding and largest sections focus on various aspects of the transnational reception of the Nights. While the essays of the fourth section predominantly discuss written or learned tradition in Hawai'i, Swahili-speaking East Africa, Turkey, Iran, German cinema, and modern Arabic literature, the fifth section encompasses essays on the reception and role of the Nights in the oral tradition of areas as wide apart as Sicily, Greece, Afganistan, and Balochistan. A preface by Ulrich Marzolph unifies this volume. In view of the tremendous impact of the Arabian Nights on Western creative imagination, this collection will appeal to literary scholars of many backgrounds.

The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights

Download The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108630278
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (86 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights by : David Ghanim

Download or read book The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights written by David Ghanim and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-12 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the stories of wives and their lovers to those of kings and their conquests, to the overarching story of Shahrazad and Shahryar, the tales of the Arabian Nights have offered countless audiences entertainment and enjoyment as well as serving as cautionary stories. An outstanding piece of world literature, the Arabian Nights provide a lively and interesting way of exploring aspects of sexuality, romance, gender, culture, wealth, and politics. Looking at a wide range of the tales, David Ghanim offers a rigorous exploration of their profound sexuality: looking at both the context in which they were written and organised, as well as their legacy. By including accounts of heterosexuality, homosexuality, cuckoldry, insatiable lust, promiscuity, rape, incest, bestiality, demonic sexuality, and erotica, Ghanim highlights the complexity and dynamism of medieval sexuality, the active role of women in sexual activities, and the prevailing positive outlook on sexual liaison and gender mixing.

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

Download Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0812998928
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (129 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by : Salman Rushdie

Download or read book Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights written by Salman Rushdie and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Harper’s Bazaar • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Guardian • The Kansas City Star • National Post • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews From Salman Rushdie, one of the great writers of our time, comes a spellbinding work of fiction that blends history, mythology, and a timeless love story. A lush, richly layered novel in which our world has been plunged into an age of unreason, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is a breathtaking achievement and an enduring testament to the power of storytelling. In the near future, after a storm strikes New York City, the strangenesses begin. A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own sub–Stan Lee creation. Abandoned at the mayor’s office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes and boils. A seductive gold digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining. Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from the whimsical, capricious, wanton creatures known as the jinn, who live in a world separated from ours by a veil. Centuries ago, Dunia, a princess of the jinn, fell in love with a mortal man of reason. Together they produced an astonishing number of children, unaware of their fantastical powers, who spread across generations in the human world. Once the line between worlds is breached on a grand scale, Dunia’s children and others will play a role in an epic war between light and dark spanning a thousand and one nights—or two years, eight months, and twenty-eight nights. It is a time of enormous upheaval, in which beliefs are challenged, words act like poison, silence is a disease, and a noise may contain a hidden curse. Inspired by the traditional “wonder tales” of the East, Salman Rushdie’s novel is a masterpiece about the age-old conflicts that remain in today’s world. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is satirical and bawdy, full of cunning and folly, rivalries and betrayals, kismet and karma, rapture and redemption. Praise for Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights “Rushdie is our Scheherazade. . . . This book is a fantasy, a fairytale—and a brilliant reflection of and serious meditation on the choices and agonies of our life in this world.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian “One of the major literary voices of our time . . . In reading this new book, one cannot escape the feeling that [Rushdie’s] years of writing and success have perhaps been preparation for this moment, for the creation of this tremendously inventive and timely novel.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A wicked bit of satire . . . [Rushdie] riffs and expands on the tales of Scheherazade, another storyteller whose spinning of yarns was a matter of life and death.”—USA Today “A swirling tale of genies and geniuses [that] translates the bloody upheavals of our last few decades into the comic-book antics of warring jinn wielding bolts of fire, mystical transmutations and rhyming battle spells.”—The Washington Post “Great fun . . . The novel shines brightest in the panache of its unfolding, the electric grace and nimble eloquence and extraordinary range and layering of his voice.”—The Boston Globe

Tales from the Arabian Nights

Download Tales from the Arabian Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Race Point Pub
ISBN 13 : 1631061577
Total Pages : 763 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (31 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tales from the Arabian Nights by :

Download or read book Tales from the Arabian Nights written by and published by Race Point Pub. This book was released on 2015-09-28 with total page 763 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover mystery and wonder in Tales from theArabian Nights. The next elegant edition in the Knickerbocker Classic series, Tales from the Arabian Nights is comprised of twenty-one of the most popular tales that were told by Scheherazade to her husband, King Shahryar, in the course of 1,001 nights in order to save her life. Dating over a thousand years, with origins from Persia, India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, among others, the stories include "The Tale of Scheherazade," "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." For folktale fans worldwide, this stunning gift edition has a cloth binding, ribbon marker, and is packaged neatly in an elegant slipcase. Featuring a new introduction, 24 color illustrations by Edmund Dulac, and the classic translation by Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), this volume of Tales from the Arabian Nights is an indispensable classic for every home library.

One Thousand and One Arabian Nights

Download One Thousand and One Arabian Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780192753755
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (537 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis One Thousand and One Arabian Nights by : Geraldine McCaughrean

Download or read book One Thousand and One Arabian Nights written by Geraldine McCaughrean and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Arabian Nights

Download The Arabian Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Viking
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Arabian Nights by : Robert Irwin

Download or read book The Arabian Nights written by Robert Irwin and published by Viking. This book was released on 1994 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arabian Nights: A Companion guides the reader into this celebrated labyrinth of storytelling. It traces the development of the stories from prehistoric India and Pharaonic Egypt to modern times. It explores the history of the translation, and explains the ways in which its contents have been added to, plagiarized and imitated. Above all, the book uses the stories as a guide to the social history and the counterculture of the medieval Near East and the world of the storyteller, the snake charmer, the burglar, the sorcerer, the drug addict, the treasure hunter and the adulterer.

One Thousand and One Nights

Download One Thousand and One Nights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1408174731
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (81 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis One Thousand and One Nights by : Hanan al-Shaykh

Download or read book One Thousand and One Nights written by Hanan al-Shaykh and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the world's great folk story-cycles adapted for the stage by leading theatre maker Tim Supple, from the stories written by the seminal Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh. This unique edition will unlock the ancient tales for a new generation of readers and performers. Written by Arabic writers from tales gathered in India, Persia and across the great Arab Empire, the One Thousand and One Nights are the never-ending stories told by Shahrazad night after night, under sentence of death, to the king Shahrayar who has vowed to marry a virgin every night and kill her in the morning. Shahrazad prolongs her life by keeping the King engrossed in a web of stories that never ends - a fascinating kaleidoscope of life, love and destiny. The tales that unfold are erotic, violent, supernatural and endlessly surprising. The web of tales woven by Shahrazad were exoticised and bowdlerised in the West under the title of the Arabian Nights. This adaptation unearths the true character of One Thousand and One Nights as it is in the oldest Arabic manuscripts. In turns erotic, brutal, witty, poetic and complex, the tales tell of love and marriage, power and punishment, rich and poor, and the endless trials and uncertainties of fate. The great cities and thriving trade routes of the Islamic world provide the setting for these stories that employ supernatural mystery and intense realism to portray the deep and endless drama of human experience.