Summary:King Shahryar and Scheherazade (Prologue)

The story starts with a king, Shahzaman, whose wife has committed adultery with a kitchen boy. He kills both of them and declares that he shall leave immediately for his brother’s kingdom in India. Shahzaman gets to the palace of his brother, Shahrayar.

While he is in his brother’s home, he grows sickly and pale because of his internal demons. He is king but he cannot protect or keep what is his. His brother invites him on a hunt, but he declines, staying in the palace with his grief. Then he witnesses his brother’s wife, paramours, and concubines fraternizing with the black slave boys. He realizes that his misfortune is not uncommon, and he “finds consolations in his own affliction and forgets his grief.” After Shahrayar gets back from the hunt, Shahzaman eventually tells him about his wife, and he would like to see this with his own eyes. They sneak out, under the guise of another hunt, but go back into the city to catch his wife with the black slave.

When Shahrayar returns he puts his wife to death, then he orders his vizier to find a daughter of a prince. He marries her, and then kills her the next morning, before any harm can befall him. Shahrayar continues this for many days, until the people call for a plague upon the head of their king. However, the vizier has two daughters. Scheherazade has been well educated and is knowledgeable. With a plan in mind, she requests that her father marry her to the king.

The vizier goes before the king, telling him that his daughter Scheherazade would like to marry him. They are wed, and that night Scheherazade requests that she say good bye to her sister before her death in the morning. The king agrees and sends for Dinarzad, who requests a story from her sister before she sleeps. With the king’s permission Scheherazade starts the story.

http://thousandandonearabiannights.weebly.com/literary-synopsis.html

Summary:Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves

Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter was in the forest when he saw forty thieves stop in front of a cave.

The leader said “Open Sesame!” and before Ali Baba’s amazed eyes the sealed mouth of the cave magically opened and the men disappeared inside. To come out and close the entrance, the leader said “Close Sesame” and the cave sealed itself once more. Trembling with excitement Ali Baba waited till the thieves had left and then entered the cave after saying the magic words. To his delight he found lots of treasure.

Ali Baba told his brother Kasim about the wondrous cave. Kasim set off to get some treasure for himself too. Sadly, he forgot the words to leave the cave and the thieves killed him. Ali Baba discovered his brother’s body in the cave. With the help of a slave girl called Morgiana, he was able to take Kasim’s body back home and bury it.

Realising that someone else knew about their cave the thieves tracked Ali Baba down. The leader, disguised as an oil seller stayed with Ali Baba. He had brought along mules loaded with forty oil jars containing the other thieves. Clever Morgiana knew who the oil seller really was and poured boiling oil into the jars killing the other thieves. While dancing in front of the leader of the thieves Morgiana stabbed him.

Ali Baba and his family were saved and lived happily ever after.

http://shortstoriesshort.com/story/ali-baba-and-the-forty-thieves/

Summary:Aladdin & the Wonderful Lamp

Aladdin is an impoverished and idle young man in a Chinese town. He is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father Mustapha the tailor, convincing Aladdin and his mother of his good will by appearing to arrange to set up the lad as a wealthy merchant. The sorcerer's real motive is to persuade young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the magic cave. Fortunately, Aladdin retains a magic ring lent to him by the sorcerer as protection. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring and a genie appears who takes him home to his mother. Aladdin is still carrying the lamp. When his mother tries to clean it, a second far more powerful genie appears who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp.

With the aid of the genie of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries a princess, the Sultan's daughter (after magically foiling her marriage to the vizier's son). The genie builds Aladdin a wonderful palace, a far more magnificent one than that of the Sultan himself.

The sorcerer returns and gets his hands on the lamp by tricking Aladdin's wife (who is unaware of the lamp's importance) by offering to exchange "new lamps for old". He orders the genie of the lamp to take the palace along with all its contents to his home in the Maghreb. Fortunately, Aladdin still has the magic ring and is able to summon the lesser genie. The genie of the ring cannot directly undo any of the magic of the genie of the lamp, but he is able to transport Aladdin to the Maghreb where he recovers the lamp and kills the sorcerer in battle, returning the palace (complete with the princess) to its proper place.

The sorcerer's more powerful and evil brother tries to destroy Aladdin for killing his brother by disguising himself as an old woman known for her healing powers. The princess falls for his disguise and commands the "woman" to stay in her palace in case of any illnesses. Aladdin is warned of this danger by the genie of the lamp and slays the imposter. Everyone lives happily ever after, Aladdin eventually succeeding to his father-in-law's throne.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin

Summary:The Night Empty of all Stories (Epilogue)

On the thousandth night, Scheherazade does not come to King Shahryar’s room to tell him stories. When he sends for her, her sister Dinarzad returns with a message from Scheherazade, saying she will not come to Shahryar or tell him another story.

Angry at first, Shahryar threatens to have Scheherazade beheaded if she does not appear before him. When she sends Dinarzad back with the same message, Shahryar announces that she should prepare herself for beheading the next day.

That night, Shahryar stays up and paces around his room, missing Scheherazade more and more. He grows weak with longing and in the morning, again demands to see her. This time, Scheherazade appears and tells the king she will only tell him one more story.

In this story, a king who has lost all his love for women takes a wife who is cunning, kind, and wise. She tells him a story every night for many nights. One day, she realizes she is pregnant with the king’s son. The unborn baby speaks to his mother and asks what kind of man his father is. The woman says that her father is a kind and loving man and that the baby will see that if he is allowed to live. The baby asks how his father could be a good man if he has threatened to kill his wife and son. The woman tells her unborn baby, “If I prove to you that the king is full of love, gentleness, and mercy, you must promise to be a kind and faithful man when you grow up and become the prince.” That night, the woman goes to her husband and refuses to tell more stories.

Scheherazade confesses that the woman in the story is her, and that as much as it pains her to refuse what Shahryar asks, her love for him is so great that she trusts he will not kill her. So moved is King Shahryar by Scheherazade’s words that he declares his love for her and asks that her wonderful stories be written down to be admired throughout the world forever.

McCaughrean, Geraldine, and Rosamund Fowler. One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.