Of all the pages here on Candlelight Stories, the page devoted to the tales of the Arabian Nights is the single most popular. I love to post about these fantastic and free-wheeling adventures. Here’s a wonderful BBC documentary that communicates not only the far-flung and enduring history of the tales, but also the wild sense [...]

The Internet Archive has a beautiful scan of Stories From the Arabian Nights, by Laurence Housman with illustrations by Edmund Dulac. It contains the following stories: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves The Story of the Wicked Half Brothers The Story of the Princess of Deryabar The Story of the Magic Horse The Fisherman and [...]

Look what I found! A YouTube user named Naim2212Z made this film about Scheherazade from the 1001 Arabian Nights. I believe he made it at the New York Film Academy’s location in Abu Dhabi. It’s good. The filmmaker takes his HD camera, some colorful costumes and settings and makes something that really does capture the [...]

Here’s a Discovery Channel documentary about the Arabian Nights stories.  I’m always looking for a nice illustrated version of the stories and film adaptations that capture the wild fun of the insane storytelling and loopy moralizing.  When you read them you get a sense of the sheer joy of telling a story like you get [...]

DOWNLOAD MP3 AUDIO A classic from the Arabian Nights collection. A vast treasure hidden in a secret cave, a band of cutthroat thieves, betrayals and twists of fortune are woven into one of the world’s great stories. This story contains violent situations that may not be suitable for children under 13 years of age. Adults [...]

The Arabian Nights have inspired writers, poets, composers and painters in the West. In 1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of ‘Treasure Island,’ wrote: ‘There is one book, for example, more generally loved than Shakespeare, that captivates in childhood, and still delights in age – I mean the ARABIAN NIGHTS – where you shall look [...]

The Arabian Nights have a history that is largely mysterious. However, it is widely considered that they may include tales told by ancient travelers and merchants along the Chinese Silk Route. As they made their way from Northern China to the Middle East and Egypt, the travelers stopped in various towns and trading posts where [...]

Translated by John Payne (1901) There lived once in Baghdad a very wealthy man, who lost all his substance and became so poor, that he could only earn his living by excessive labour. One night, he lay down to sleep, dejected and sick at heart, and saw in a dream one who said to him, [...]

Translation by Edward Lane (1841) Illustration by Edmund Dulac (1907) IN former days there lived in a town of Persia two brothers, one named Kasim, and the other ‘Ali Baba. Their father divided a small inheritance equally between them. Kasim married a rich wife, and became a wealthy merchant. ‘Ali Baba married a woman as [...]