Bruce Fudge (translation)

Paperback, 272 pages

English-only edition

9781479873234

 

Translated into English for the very first time, A Hundred and One Nights is a marvelous example of the rich tradition of popular Arabic storytelling. Like the celebrated Thousand and One Nights, this collection opens with the frame story of Scheherazade, the vizier's gifted daughter who recounts imaginative tales night after night in an effort to distract the murderous king from taking her life. A Hundred and One Nights features an almost entirely different set of stories, however, each one more thrilling, amusing, and disturbing than the last. Here, we encounter tales of epic warriors, buried treasure, disappearing brides, cannibal demon-women, fatal shipwrecks, and clever ruses, where human strength and ingenuity play out against a backdrop of inexorable, inscrutable fate. 

 

Distinctly rooted in Arabic literary culture and the Islamic tradition, these tales draw on motifs and story elements that circulated across cultures, including Indian and Chinese antecedents, and features a frame story possibly older than its more famous sibling. This vibrant translation of A Hundred and One Nights promises to transport readers, new and veteran alike, into its fantastical realms of magic and wonder.

 

Contents:

 

Hundred and One Nights

 

The Young Merchant

 

Najm al-Diyā' ibn Mudir al-Mulk

 

Camphor Island

 

Zafir ibn Lāhiq

 

The Vizier and his Son

 

King Sulayman ibn 'Abd al-Malik

 

Maslamah ibn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (God Show Them Mercy)

 

Gharībat al-Husn and the Young Egyptian

 

The Young Egyptian and his Wife

 

The King and his Three Sons

 

The Young Man and the Necklaces

 

The Four Companions

 

The Prince and the Seven Viziers

 

The King and the Serpent

 

The Ebony Horse

 

The King and the Gazelle

 

The Vizier Ibn Abi l-Qamar and 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan