Arabic stories

How many stories of a thousand and one nights

One Thousand and One Nights

The stories of One Thousand and One Nights are classified under the list of popular literature, which appeared specifically in the southern and western regions of the Asian continent, and which tell stories that took place in Arab countries and others such as India, Persia, and Iraq, in addition to Egypt, which includes many important and well-known personalities such as the caliph The Abbasid Harun al-Rashid, the Arab poet Abu Nawas, in addition to the minister Jaafar al-Baramki, and others.

What distinguishes these stories is that their characters - sometimes - tell stories about other characters and so on, to produce a narrative that is consistent with the narration and contains many characters, and it is worth noting that these stories have been collected and translated into several languages ​​over several centuries, for example they were translated into English under the title The Arabian Nights.

The stories narrated in the book of One Thousand and One Nights vary, to include funny, comedic, and sad tragic stories, in addition to stories that talk about Islamic history, love stories and betrayals, in addition to the many fictional and legendary stories that include jinn, magic and sorcery, some of which are logical or otherwise. And there is an overlap between the real and the imaginary world, and there are many opinions that say that all the stories are inspired by the Persian folk literature “A Thousand Fables”, and in this article we will address the number of stories narrated in the Thousand and One Nights.

The frame story of One Thousand and One Nights

The stories of One Thousand and One Nights begin with King Shahryar, who discovered that his wife and his brother's wife were cheating on them with the slaves in the palace, so he issued a decision ordering their execution, after which he lost his confidence in women and considered them traitors and mistakes, so he wanted to take revenge on them, so he began to marry virgin girls, and kill them at night The wedding, until he married Scheherazade, who began to tell him a story on the wedding night without finishing it, which aroused Shahryar's curiosity, and he postponed her execution until he finished hearing the full story, and every night she told him a new and interesting story until the number of nights reached One Thousand and One Nights.

Read also:Summary of the story of the wings of emotions

Examples of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights

The Thousand and One Nights includes five hundred and sixty-eight stories of varied content, characters, and lessons as well, which Scheherazade told her husband, King Shahryar, over the course of the Thousand and One Nights. Examples of these stories include the following:

  • The story of King Shahryar and his brother, King Shah Zaman.
  • The story of the donkey and the bull with the owner of the implant.
  • The Tale of the Merchant with the Elf.
  • The story of Masroor the merchant with his mistress Zain Al-Mawasef.
  • The story of Ali Noureddine with Maryam Al-Zanaria.
  • The story of the young Baghdadi with his slave girl whom he bought.
  • The story of Anas Al-Wujud with his beloved Al-Ward in his sleeve.
  • The story of Qamar al-Zaman with his mistress.
  • The story of Abdullah bin Fadel, the governor of Basra, with his two brothers.
  • The story of Maarouf the cobbler.
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