The Arabian Nights

Princess (ca. 1540 AD)

People in India and Persia have been telling these stories for a long time - nobody knows how long. Around 850 AD, a Persian writer in the Abbasid Empire collected a bunch of stories into a book called "Alf Layla wa Layla", or the Thousand and One Nights - which we also call the Arabian Nights. The book is about a Sassanian king, Shahryar, who decides to make sure his wife is always faithful to him by marrying a new girl every night and killing her in the morning.

King Shahryar's vizier is in charge of finding a new girl every day to marry the king. One day, the vizier's own daughter Scheherazade comes to him and insists that she should marry the king. Scheherazade (shuh-HAIR-ah-zadd) explains that she has a plan to stop the king from killing all these women, so the vizier unhappily agrees to let her marry the king.

So Scheherazade marries King Shahryar. That night at bedtime, she offers to tell her new husband a story. She tells a great story, but just at the most exciting part she stops because the sun is coming up and it's time for her to be killed. But King Shahryar wants to hear the end of the story, so he agrees to let Scheherazade live another day.

Scheherazade continues her story that night, and again she ends at the most exciting part, and again the king lets her live. She does that every night, for a thousand and one nights, and finally King Shahryar sees that this was a dumb idea and lets Scheherazade live as his queen.

Here are some of the stories Scheherazade told the king:

• The
• The
• The

Islamic poetry
African stories
Medieval stories
Greek mythology
Back to main Islam page
Back to main literature page

!!NEW!!
Science for Kids

Teachers - check out our social studies lesson plans for middle school ancient history! Kidipede covers Egyptian Art, the Middle Ages, Ancient Rome, Native Americans and much more. Instant museum in your classroom.

Parents and grandparents – find the perfect gift for your middle school kid in Kidipede’s store! Kidipede has history books and other educational gifts for kids, from Halloween costumes to CD’s and DVD’s to art supplies. Now that’s good parenting! Pay securely through Amazon.

Teens – Kidipede has the best homework help around. Find out about ancient Greek music, medieval clothing fashions, and Native American technology trends. What was trendy clothing in ancient China? Who were the most popular girls in ancient Rome? How did teens decorate their rooms in ancient India?