A medieval Middle-Eastern literary epic which tells the story of Scheherazade a Sassanid Queen
who must relate a series of stories to her malevolent husband the King to delay her
execution. The stories are told over a period of one thousand and one nights and every night
she ends the story with a suspenseful situation forcing the King to keep her alive for another
day. The individual stories were created over many centuries by many people and in many styles
and they have become famous in their own right. The Arabian Nights include fairy tales fables
romances farces legends and parables. They have existed for thousands of years consisting
of tales told in Persia Arabia India and Asia. The Arabian Nights (also known as The 1001
Arabian Nights) have inspired writers the world over. There are versions of these stories in
many languages and they all convey the great sense of adventure truth fantastic imagination
justice and faith embodied by the great civilizationsthat contributed stories and ideas to the
collection. These are versions translated by Andrew Lang in 1897. Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 -
20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet novelist literary critic and contributor to the field of
anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales.
