1001 Arabian Nights: The Stories Behind the Story

1. In USA and Great Britain these tales are known as Arabian Nights (sometimes Arabian Nights Entertainment) but many of them have nothing to do with Arab countries. The collection consists of fairy tales, fables, riddles and verses from large area of Asia and Africa, with India probably being the biggest contributor. The main story which serves to present all the others, for instance is going on in Persia.

2. In Europe Arabian Nights are mostly known as 1001 Nights. Many people believe Thousand and one is the number of the tales in the collection but this is also not true. 1001 Nights only gives a time frame in which stories are told by Scheherazade to her husband. He wants to kill her as all his previous wives after the first wedding night but decides to postpone the execution because he wanted to know how story ends (and she always starts the next before he notices the first one is finished).

There is no definite answer to the question "How many stories are in 1001 Nights?". There are versions with only a dozen tales and versions with several hundreds available. We also have a problem to identify which are the 'original' tales, which came into collection from other sources and which are not a part of folklore at all.

And of course pretty complicated narration with frames, unfinished stories and two or three variations of many of the stories don't help either...

5. In 1001 Nights everything is mixed. We find different fiction genres with characters and events based on real people and real places but sometimes in weird interactions. We have magicians, talking animals, djinns and even robots!

6. A huge part of 'original' 1001 Nights consists of poetry but this part is mostly unknown to Western audience because it lacks the suspense narrators in Western folklore suppose to build. On the other hand poetic passages are almost mandatory decorative element in Arabic traditions of storytelling.

7. Some of the tales in the collection of Arabian Nights are called 'orphans' because they don't have known ancestors in oriental folklore. This list includes some of the most known titles as Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Sinbad the Sailor (in illustration on the left presented by Arthur Rackham) and Ali Baba and 40 thieves. Most experts believe they were written by Antoine Galland, first translator of the 1001 Nights. Galland heavily edited the tales, erasing most of the poetry and scenes which he considered as inappropriate.

8. Most influential translator of Arabian Nights in English language was Sir Richard Burton. His approach was totally different than Galland's. He didn't only leave 'adult' scenes in the book, he even added footnotes to provide additional info on oriental intimate practices.

9. Stories from Arabian Nights influenced European literature much before Galland's translation. Many of the elements from the collection can be found in stories written by Bocaccio or Chaucer. Some of the stories came to Europe through Spain and some through Greece. When Galland's translation occurred, it coincided with the rise of popularity of fairy tales in French salons and the impact of 1001 Nights is clearly seen from then on. It is, for instance, Aladdin obviously inspired The Tinder-Box, first fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen.