Explore

In the Images of World Literature slideshow, you saw images inspired by The Thousand and One Nights. Here at Connections, you can find varied interpretations, analyses, and performances of the story of the archetypal storyteller, Shahrazad, and her tales.

Movies/Popular Interpretations/TV/Performance

• See excerpts from Mary Zimmerman's stage production of The Arabian Nights.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxiaGSa8kb4
• See clips and photos of The Arabian Nights, a large-scale dinner show. This theatrical production has horses, dancers, and acrobats.
  http://www.arabian-nights.com
• See a trailer for a 2000 TV production of The Arabian Nights.
  http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1102512409/
• See a clip from the children's TV series made by animators Aly Jetha and Shabnam Rezaei (both featured in the video episode).
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srdGoytBoD8

Music

• Learn more about the Rimsky-Korsakov symphonic suite Scheherazade (that Marin Alsop talks about in the video episode), and hear a clip of the music.
  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10139009
• Hear music at the 1001 Nights Orchestra web site, inspired by the stories.
  http://www.1001nightsorchestra.com/music.html
• Hear the band Moroccan Spirit's Music for 1001 Nights.
  http://www.last.fm/music/Moroccan+Spirit
  /_/Music+For+1001+Nights

Books

• André Clot, Haroun al-Rashid and the World of the Thousand and One Nights, 1989.
  http://www.amazon.com/Harun-Al-Rashid-World-Thousand-Nights/dp/0941533654
• Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, 1995.
  http://www.amazon.com/Arabian-Nights-Companion-Robert-Irwin/dp/1860649831
• David Pinault, Storytelling Techniques on the Arabian Nights, 1992.
  http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Story-Telling-Techniques-in-the-Arabian-Nights/David-Pinault/e/9789004095304
• The Thousand and One Nights can fruitfully be read together with other medieval collections of tales, notably including the following works.
• Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron. A group of young noblewomen and noblemen flee plague-ridden Florence and amuse themselves with telling tales of morality, sexual misbehavior, and storytelling.
  http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/texts/
• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. The most famous early English collection of moral and immoral tales, some taken from Boccaccio.
  http://www.librarius.com/cantales.htm
• Marguerite de Navarre, The Heptameron. A lively, ironic compilation by a French noblewoman.
  http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/navarre/heptameron/heptameron.html
• The Thousand and One Nights has inspired many later writers, both in the Middle East and around the world.
• John Barth, Chimera, (short stories) 1972. "The Dunyazadiad," is a riotous, ribald retelling of the frame tale from the perspective of Shahrazad's younger sister and sidekick.
  http://www.amazon.com/Chimera-John-Barth/dp/0618131701
• Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1971. A combination of the Travels of Marco Polo with the 1001 Nights, with Marco Polo playing Shahrazad to Kublai Khan's Shahrayar.
  http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Cities-Italo-Calvino/dp/0156453800
• Assia Djebar, A Sister to Scheherazade, 1993. A feminist retelling of the tales by the contemporary Algerian writer.
  http://www.amazon.com/Sister-Scheherazade-Assia-Djebar/dp/0435086227
• Naguib Mahfouz, Arabian Nights and Days, 1979. A pointedly political updating of the tales, set in Cairo, by the Nobel Prize-winning author.
  http://www.amazon.com/Arabian-Nights-Days-Naguib-Mahfouz/dp/0385469012
• Mary Helen Stefaniak, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel, 2010. Set in Baghdad, Georgia during the 1930s and 1940s, the story is about a school teacher, Ms. Spivey, who introduces not only her students but the entire town and surrounding communities to Baghdad and the story of the tales of the Arabian Nights.
  http://www.maryhelenstefaniak.com/the_cailiffs_of_baghdad__georgia_90477.htm