‘’arabian nights’’

Printed Arabic editions

The first printed Arabic-language edition of the One Thousand and

One Nights was published in 1775. It contained an Egyptian version of 

The Nights known as "ZER" (Zotenberg's Egyptian Recension) and 200 tales.

No copy of this edition survives, but it was the basis for an 1835 edition by

Bulaq, published by the Egyptian government.

Arabic manuscript with parts of Arabian Nights, collected by Heinrich

Friedrich von Diez, 19th century CE, origin unknown The Nights were next

printed in Arabic in two volumes in Calcutta by the British East India Company

 in 1814–18. Each volume contained one hundred tales.

Arabic manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights

 dating back to the 14th century

The story of Aladdin and his magic lamp is one of the most famous of all

the Arabian Nights stories and was incorporated into the collection by

Antoine Galland, the French translator who heard it from a Syrian storyteller.

The setting is a bit inconsistent. Though this tale is Middle Eastern, it is set

in China, and Aladdin is Chinese; however, most of the people in the story

are Muslims, and everyone has an Arabic name.

It is possible that the storyteller knew little of China when writing this story,

and therefore assumed it to be more Muslim than it actually was, but this is

unclear. The strange, exotic setting could have been deliberate, to evoke a more

distant, mystical land for its original listeners. Certainly, this story employs

more direct magic than most others.

‘’ALADDIN’S WONDERFUL LAMP’’

"Aladdin's Lamp" tells of a peasant boy who is tricked by an evil magician into

retrieving a magic genie lamp from a cave. However, Aladdin outsmarts him,

keeping the lamp for himself. Through the genie's power, Aladdin grows rich and

marries the sultan's daughter. When the magician steals the lamp back, Aladdin

and his wife thwart and kill the villain. The magician's brother then attempts to avenge the dead man, but is equally defeated, so that Aladdin lives happily ever after.

In "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," hardworking Ali Baba stumbles upon a thieves'

hideout full of treasure, protected by a magic entry. When Ali Baba accidentally

reveals the secret to his richer brother Cassim, Cassim gets trapped in the hideout,

and killed by the thieves. The villains then try to track down and kill Ali Baba

, but their plans are consistently thwarted by the quick-witted slave Morgiana.

In "The Three Apples," a fisherman finds a chest in the ocean containing a woman's body.

Both her father and her husband try to take the blame, but the caliph discerns that

the husband had killed her, believing her unfaithful.

‘’Ali baba and forty thieves’’

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