In researching “One Thousand and One Nights,” each tale must be considered separately, since there is no organic connection between them, and before being included in the collection they existed independently for a long time. Attempts to group some of them according to their presumed origins—India, Iran, or Baghdad—are not well grounded. The plots of Shahrazad’s stories were formed from separate elements that could have penetrated Arabic soil from Iran or India independently of one another; in their new homeland, they became overlaid with purely local layers and were considered, since ancient times, part of Arab folklore.