Arabian Nights Stories

The collection of Arabian Nights Stories is the most famous literary product of a classical Islamic Civilization that was formed through a merging of Arabic culture (especially religion) and the great imperial traditions of the eastern Mediterranean and the Persian empire of the Sassanians. Ironically, the work was not widely accepted as serious literature by the intellectual and literary elite of the Islamic world. This rejection reflects the Koran's condemnation of fictional narratives as lying. Most traditional Arabic narrative was didactic or religious - history, useful knowledge moral instruction.

Imagination and fantasy were more commonly expressed in poetry which had a tradition in Arabic life pre-dating Islam and was not constrained by religious concerns. The Arabian Nights has often been banned by Arab governments even as recently as 1989 when Egypt issued a ban.

The first documented evidence for the collection is a 12th century Cairene notebook : the oldest manuscripts date from the 15th century and consist of about 270 nights. The stories were circulated in manuscript for centuries until they were written down in a definite form during the late 13th century, somewhere in Syria or Egypt.

All later manuscript versions originate in this now-lost document and they fall into two main bunches - one developed in Syria and the other in Egypt. The Syrian collection remained close to the original. The Egyptian collection, on the other hand, absorbed many further stories in an apparent quest to actually arrive at the 1001 nights of the title.

Because of the various inputs to the final collection, it is important to recognize that there is no ONE version of this tales with universal acceptance. Plots from these stories also became stock elements in English Pantomime. So that by the middle of the century most English children would have been fairly familiar with these particular tales.

Here is a very good collection of ancient tales called Arabian Nights Stories. This collection of ancient tales from Arabia, India, Persia, etc., is called Arabian Night. The Merchant and The Genie, The Enchanted Horse, The Little Hunchbacked, Sindbad The Sailor, etc., are few of the selected stories which will act as catalyst and set off the young beginners on the quest for knowledge. So, this collection of stories can definitely be taken for granted because general reading-public is a graded quality of knowledge seeker. These tales were continued for more than one thousand nights to entertain the Sultan Shahriar. So, the Sultan forgot his cruelties against his people. Here are few of those interesting and valuable tales selected for our readers.

  1. Alaudeen and The Magical Lamp
  2. Alibaba and The Forty Thieves
  3. Banished Son Saves His Brothers
  4. Eye for An Eye
  5. Falcon saved His Friend The King
  6. Greediness can make A Man Blind
  7. Prince Hussein and Princess Margiana
  8. Real Love Sever Fails
  9. Return of Princess and Her Ruby
  10. Sheherazade and Shahriar
  11. Sindbad The Sailor
  12. Test of Demon for Honesty
  13. The Bull and The Ass
  14. The Clever Woman
  15. The Dead Father and His Wish
  16. The Dog and The Ass
  17. The Dwarf with a Long Beard
  18. The Enchanted Horse
  19. The Enchanting Horse
  20. The Fifth Voyage
  21. The First Voyage
  22. The Fisherman and The Genie
  23. The Fourth Voyage
  24. The Good Neighbour
  25. The Little Hunchbacked
  26. The Merchant and The Genie - 1
  27. The Merchant and The Genie - 2
  28. The Monkey Advisor
  29. The Old Man with The Hind
  30. The Old Man with The Two Black Dogs
  31. The Prince and The Ogress
  32. The Sailor Sindbad
  33. The Second Voyage
  34. The Seventh Voyage
  35. The Sixth Voyage
  36. The Third Voyage
  37. The Three Wisemen and The Camel
  38. The Wicked Wife of The Sheik
  39. Three Brothers
  40. Zubair and The Barber




Short Stories Index




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