A Hundred and One Nights
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