The Arabian Nights is a collection of stories, all of which revolve around one main plot: a new wife,

Shahrazad, must tell her husband, King Shahrayar, a new story every night lest he kill her in the morning.
While some stories stand alone, several of Shahrazad’s stories contain a number of shorter tales, which
are “told” by characters in Shahrazad’s story. In this way, readers hear numerous stories, told from
various points of view, despite the fact that Shahrazad is the main storyteller in the text. Before
Shahrazad’s first story is shared, however, The Arabian Nights opens with two brothers, Shahrayar and
Shahzaman, who discover that their wives are unfaithful. They set out to find a man more unfortunate
than they. When they do, they return to Shahrayar’s palace, where he murders his wife. He decides to
marry a new woman each night and kill her in the morning as revenge on women, all of whom he now
distrusts. Shahrayar kills many until he marries his vizier’s daughter, Shahrazad. In an attempt to dissuade
Shahrazad from marrying Shahrayar, the vizier tells her “The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey” and “The
Tale of the Merchant and His Wife,” two stories about miscalculation and penitent women. The stories
do not sway Shahrazad, however. Her plan is to tell Shahrayar a new story each night and leave him in
suspense, which would cause him to spare her life while waiting for the next tale. Privacy - Terms
Summary Characters Literary Devices Quotes 2/6 Shahrazad begins with “The Story of the Merchant and
the Demon,” a cycle of tales that revolve around a merchant whom a demon threatens to kill. Three old
men appear and bargain with the demon for one-third of the merchant’s life if they can tell a story that
will entertain the demon. The first two men tell stories of revenge and sorcery, of mistresses and jealous
brothers. While readers do not hear the third man’s story, the demon spares the merchant’s life. The
next cycle of Shahrazad’s tales revolves around a poor fisherman and a demon. The fisherman tells the
demon “The Tale of King Yunan and the Sage Duban” and “The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot.” A
character in the first of these tales tells “The Tale of the King’s Son and the She-Ghoul,” two stories about
revenge and trust. Shahrazad then returns to the fisherman and a mystery of four colored fish. A king in
that tale discovers a young man who tells “The Tale of the Enchanted King,” about an unfaithful wife
killed by a king in disguise. Eventually, the king rewards the fisherman by giving him one of his daughters
to marry. The next group of stories begins with “The Tale of the Porter and the Three Ladies,” in which a
porter accompanies a woman home to two sisters. They are joined by a caliph, his vizier, a servant, and
three dervishes. The sisters make the men promise not to question anything they see, and when they do,
they must die. The sisters will spare them, however, if each man tells his tale. What follows are the tales
told by the dervishes, which include details such as hidden subterranean rooms, plans of revenge,
demons, and captive sons. Embedded in the second dervish’s tale is “The Tale of the Envious and the
Envied,” a story told by one of the captive sons. In this tale, a demon spares a man’s life but turns him
into an ape. The third dervish talks about a man who accidentally kills someone. Shahrazad then visits
her sister, Dinarzad, and they exchange their own stories, including “The Tale of the First Lady, the
Mistress of the House” and “The Tale of the Second Lady, the Flogged One.” In one story, the caliph from
“The Tale of the Porter and the Three Ladies” embarks on another set of tales. The first, “The Story of
the Three Apples,” involves a murdered girl. A slave complicit in the crime tells “The Story of the Two
Viziers,” about two brothers who marry and have children on the same days. Their children grow up,
eventually marry one another, separate for many years, and then reunite. The tale is so entertaining, the
slave who tells it is freed. Shahrazad next begins a long series of tales centered around a hunchback who
chokes on a fish bone. Four people take the blame as his body is passed from place to place: a Christian
broker, a steward, a Jewish physician, and a tailor. Each has a story to tell. The tailor’s tale leads to
another series of stories told by a barber who will not stop talking, told to entertain a caliph at a
banquet. The barber tells tales about six brothers, each of whom has a physical deformity. In each case,
the brothers end up destitute, beaten, maimed, banished, and/or arrested and move in with the barber.
The cycle of stories concludes when the barber, now old, pulls the fish bone from the hunchback’s throat
and the man revives. The Arabian Nights ends with three love stories. In “The Story of Nur al-Din Ali ibn-
Bakkar and the Slave-Girl Shams al-Nahar,” a young man falls in love with a slave of a caliph. The lovers
are befriended by a druggist and then by a jeweler, but after trysts, robberies, and intermediaries, the
lovers both die from lovesickness. In the second story, “The Story of the Slave-Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur
al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan,” a slave is promised to a king, but the king’s kind vizier’s son, Nur al-Din, falls in
love with her first. Nur al-Din wastes his money and risks his lover to an evil vizier, which causes the
couple to flee. In a new land, the caliph befriends them and appeals to the king to allow the couple to
return. Again, the evil vizier makes trouble, but in an abrupt ending, Nur al-Din kills the vizier instead,
and everyone lives happily. In the third love story, “The Story of Jullanar of the Sea,” a Persian king falls in
love with a sea creature named Jullanar, who bears him a son. The son, Badr, becomes king and wants to
marry Jauhara, the beautiful daughter of a tyrannical king who will not give his daughter away. Badr is
turned into a bird twice, goes to the City of Magicians, and meets Queen Lab. Eventually, he returns to
human form and marries Jauhara, and they spend the rest of their days happily. The Arabian Nights ends
with a postscript explaining that Shahrazad’s plan worked. She became queen to Shahrayar and bore him
three sons.

The first two fables, told by Shahrazad’s father as he tries to convince Shahrazad to not marry Shahrayar,
the characters are animals. Like the frame story between Shahrayar and Shahrazad, the tales woven
throughout the text are full of sexuality, violence, long journeys, and high suspense. And just like the
frame story, the tales often teach the virtues of patience, empathy, loyalty, and fortitude. Some end
tragically, but many end happily as fate rewards the characters for surviving all kinds of challenges,
tortures, cruelties, and pain. All the stories delight and intrigue. None are boring, slow, or even
enigmatic. Their plots and characters satisfy an audience’s thirst to be entertained and the human need
for connection.

The stories are grouped into nine cycles of varying lengths and complexities. Within each cycle, there
begins a main story that branches into sub-stories and even sub-sub-stories, each one nested inside
another, often with new narrators and new casts of characters. Sometimes, the stories are interwoven,
sharing characters, settings, and events. Other times, they are completely distinct and separate, such as
the last three love stories in the collection. Some tales are told by a series of narrators who are related,
such as the barber’s six brothers, the three dervishes, or the three sisters who share a house.
Occasionally, the sub-tales come full circle in a cycle, such as the story of the hunchback who appears to
die at the beginning of “The Story of the Hunchback” but is revived on the 169th night. No matter which
of the tales’ characters are acting as narrator, Shahrazad is the one true storyteller here, and she weaves
each tale masterfully.

Readers learn how the main conflict is resolved quite abruptly at the end of the book. There, on the last
page, appears a short note about the conflict’s outcome, not a denouement but more of a climax that
occurs suddenly and without warning. First, the final story, “The Story of Jullanar of the Sea,” ends with
the detail that King Badr and his wife and family enjoyed life until they were “overtaken by the breaker of
ties and destroyer of delights. And this is the completion and the end of their story.” This detail hints to
readers that the same is true for Shahrazad and Shahrayar, that they enjoy life until they are overtaken
by death. Then, in the Translator’s Postscript, which appears immediately after the final tale, readers
learn that Shahrayar learned to love and trust Shahrazad, and the two became parents to three children.
After hundreds of nights of stories, Shahrazad’s plan to put an end to Shahrayar’s murderous ways
succeeds.