"A Thousand and One Nights" is a monument of medieval Arabic literature: a collection of tales united by the story of King Shahriyar and his wife Shahrazad. After discovering his first wife’s infidelity, Shahriyar every day takes a new wife and executes her after the very first night of marriage. However, the resourceful and courageous Shahrazad tells the king an engrossing story every night. With the coming of morning, she breaks off her narration at the most interesting point, and the king, captivated by the tale, cannot bring himself to refuse hearing the continuation…
Time has not diminished the popularity of Shahrazad’s stories. Wise and elegant Eastern tales continue to astonish our imagination—like the dazzling variety of luxurious Eastern fabrics, the glint of merciless Muslim blades, the mysterious shine of multicolored Arab cups… Fragments of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera "Scheherazade" are used.
Contents:
1. The Tale of King Shahriyar and His Brother
2. The Tale of Ala ad-Din and the Magic Lamp
3. The Tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and of the slave woman Marjannah, completely and in full
4. The Tale of Sinbad the Sailor
5. The Tale of Maruf the Shoemaker
6. The Tale of King Shahriyar and Shahrazad