How Arabian Nights Came Into Being.

Hundreds of years ago professional storytellers in India and the Middle East made up the stories now known as Arabian Nights. Later, groups of these stories were put together. One group was translated from Arabic to French by Antonie Galland in the early 1700s. His, ‘A Thousand and One Nights, introduced these Oriental tales to the Western world.

All the collections have one thing in common. A heroine, Scheherazade, tells different stories. She recites the tales for a very good reason: She must save her life.

The heroine was married to Sultan Shahriyar, who had killed his first wife when she was unfaithful to him and then all his later wives in revenge against women. Scheherazade did not want to suffer the same fate. On her wedding night, she began to tell her husband a story and stopped just before she reached the end. The Sultan allowed her to live another day to hear the end of her tale. The next night she finished the story and began another one even more fascinating than the first. Again, she stopped before the ending, gaining another day of life.

And so it went, for a thousand and one nights. Finally, the Sultan realized that Scheherazade was a good and faithful wife, and the couple lived happily ever after.