Introduction

Betrayed by his queen, King Shahryar comes to hate all women; each day he marries a maiden and has her put to death the next morning. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as his bride, and each night tells him a story, breaking off at the most exciting moment as dawn appears, so that the king, eager to hear the rest, puts off her execution day after day. So she tells for a thousand and one nights, stories within stories: the fisherman and the jinni, the seven voyages of Sindbad, the ebony horse, the three apples, the hunchback, the porter and the three ladies of Baghdad… until at last the king repents and they live together to old age. This volume translates from the Arabic the finest of the tales, together with the famous stories of Aladdin and Ali Baba from Galland's version.