The Thousand and One Nights
Influence of Cultures on "The Thousand and One Nights"
Stories like Sindbad, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and other popular stories are very common today in the western culture. Animated movies were also made for the entertainment of kids on these popular stories. One might wonder that where these stories originated and how it came down and made place in the western culture. Although these stories are very popular in both the western culture and the eastern culture but the original literary work is not so popular in common people. Theses stories are some of the stories from the Arabic work "The Thousand and One Nights." The work of "The Thousand and One Nights" represents basically a female that is a strong and clever idol and continuously imaginative and creative. It is an anonymous work which is widely known in the Arab world. It is an Arabic collection of a thousand tales, which is derived from the Persian version, telling of a King who was in the habit of killing his wives after the first night, and who was led to abandon this practise by the cleverness of the Wezir's daughter, who nightly told him a tale which she left unfinished at dawn, so that his curiosity led him to spare her till the tale should be completed. Many people have written about these stories, that where they originated, what time period was it originated, how they have been changed, and also literary criticism of the work. The question arises to many historians that when did this work originated. It has been said that it was originated in Persia in pre-Islamic time period and then later translated into Arabic. The Norton Anthology of World MasterPieces states:
The history of The Thousand and One Nights is vague, and its shape as hard to pin down as colud's. The starting point of the work in Arabic was probably collection of tales in Middle Persian called the "thousand stories" that had been translated or adapted from Sanskrit in the time of the Sassanids, the pre-Islamic Iranian
Stories like Sindbad, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and other popular stories are very common today in the western culture. Animated movies were also made for the entertainment of kids on these popular stories. One might wonder that where these stories originated and how it came down and made place in the western culture. Although these stories are very popular in both the western culture and the eastern culture but the original literary work is not so popular in common people. Theses stories are some of the stories from the Arabic work "The Thousand and One Nights." The work of "The Thousand and One Nights" represents basically a female that is a strong and clever idol and continuously imaginative and creative. It is an anonymous work which is widely known in the Arab world. It is an Arabic collection of a thousand tales, which is derived from the Persian version, telling of a King who was in the habit of killing his wives after the first night, and who was led to abandon this practise by the cleverness of the Wezir's daughter, who nightly told him a tale which she left unfinished at dawn, so that his curiosity led him to spare her till the tale should be completed. Many people have written about these stories, that where they originated, what time period was it originated, how they have been changed, and also literary criticism of the work. The question arises to many historians that when did this work originated. It has been said that it was originated in Persia in pre-Islamic time period and then later translated into Arabic. The Norton Anthology of World MasterPieces states:
The history of The Thousand and One Nights is vague, and its shape as hard to pin down as colud's. The starting point of the work in Arabic was probably collection of tales in Middle Persian called the "thousand stories" that had been translated or adapted from Sanskrit in the time of the Sassanids, the pre-Islamic Iranian
Cited: Carracciolo, Peter L. The Arabian Nights in English literature. New York: St. Martin 's Press, 1988. Goitein, S.D. "The Oldest Evidence for the Title Alf Laila wa-Laila." Journal of the American Oriental Society 78 (1958):301-302. Kirby, W.F. "Les Cent et Une Nuits." FolkLore 22 (1911):375-377. Kirby, W.F. "The Forbidden Doors of the Thousand and One Nights." The Folk-Lore Journal 5 (1887):112-124. Lawwal, Mack, et al. The Northon Anthology of World MasterPieces. New York: Norton, 1998. Norris, H.T. "The Arabian Nights: A Companion." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 58 (1995):148-149. Parker, Margaret. The story of a story across cultures: the case of the doncella Teodor New York: Rochester, 1996. Pinault, David. "The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic Literature and Society." Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999):536-537. Woollcott, Alexander, shouts and murmurs; echoes of a thousand and one first nights. New York: Century, 1922. Youssef, Magdi. "Scheherazade in England, a Study of Nineteenth-Century English Criticism of the Arabian Nights." International Journal of Middle East Studies 15 (1983):390-391.