The story of the third calender is as packed with mysteries and adventures as the tales of Sinbad the Sailor: after surviving shipwreck, the young prince finds that friendship leads him to a series of...

Readers familiar with the friendly blue genie in Disney's Aladdin films may be shocked to discover a crueller kind in Scheherazade's first tale. When a merchant accidentally kills the son of a genie,...

The story of Scheherazade, weaving tales to save her life, is as famous as the stories she tells the murderous Sultan, and has been used as a model by dozens of other writers, such as Stephen King in...

When the second princely calender's story of an envious man fails to appease an evil genie, his punishment is to be turned into a monkey. No longer able to speak, he nonetheless retains his greatest talent:...

An old man explains that his two black dogs are really his two brothers, whom he repeatedly saved from poverty. When he married a beautiful woman, however, all his kindnesses were forgotten, and his brothers...

The second wandering Sufi tells how, as a young prince, he set off to visit the Sultan of the Indies, but never arrived. Instead, his adventures led him through danger, poverty, a secret palace, and into...

Sinbad the Sailor is among the most famous heroes of the Arabian Nights; his voyages have been adapted many times, including as Marvel comics and a Dreamworks film starring Brad Pitt, and influenced other...

The prince of the Black Isles and the inhabitants of his city have suffered under the magical power of his cousin, whom he married not knowing she was an enchantress—until the sultan from "The Story of...

Certo dia andando na floresta, o pobre lenhador Ali Babá escutou a frase que mudará sua vida para sempre: "Abre-te, Sésamo!" Com essa fórmula mágica, ele conseguiu abrir uma caverna misteriosa... Ali...

Sindbad, now an old man, has finally learned his lesson, and sworn never to leave Bagdad. Yet when the Caliph demands that he return to Serendib (modern-day Sri Lanka), Sindbad has no choice but to set...

Sindbad's fourth voyage may not feature monsters or giant animals, but after being shipwrecked and befriending the hospitable islanders, he faces a different kind of horror: a tradition in which the living...

Sindbad's fifth voyage progresses from tragedy to farce when the crew of his ship first discover the egg of a roc – the giant eagles he escaped in his second voyage – and he is later captured by the Old...

Many legends are told about whales so huge they are mistaken for islands, and wake up when sailors light a campfire on their backs, plunging into the depths and drowning the poor mariners. An encounter...

Seized by wanderlust for a sixth time, even Sindbad begins to regret his restlessness when he's shipwrecked on a seemingly barren island, and has to watch his crew starve to death. But Sindbad's cunning...

After such lucky escapes from disaster as those in Sindbad's first voyage, most people would probably choose to stay at home – but Sindbad is not most people. Going to sea a second time, Sindbad must...

A jealous husband gives his wife a talking parrot as a gift—but if you remember Gilbert Gottfried as Iago in Disney's animated Aladdin, you'll have an idea what to expect! Now the wife must somehow bamboozle...

Everyone has imagined the boy or girl of their dreams – but what would happen if they appeared in the middle of the night, and disappeared in the morning? Camaralzaman is prince of an island near Persia;...

A good fairy tale needs a happy ending, and if he can't provide one for the rags-to-riches-to-rags-again story of his sixth brother, the barber of Kashgar can at least add one to the history of the little...

What makes for an ideal slave-girl: beauty alone, or intelligence as well? Unfettered by political correctness, King Zinebi decides to settle the question by giving his vizir 10,000 gold pieces to buy...

How many times can one man die? Surprisingly many, it turns out. Set in what is now the Xinjiang province of China, tensions between Muslims, Jews and Christians lead a series of inhabitants to frame...

Everyone knows the story of Aladdin and the genie of the lamp, thanks to the Disney film adaptations starring Robin Williams and Gilbert Gottfried in the 1992 animated feature, and Will Smith and Naomi...

Setting out on the high seas again, Sindbad faces greater dangers in his third voyage than ever before, including pygmy pirates, a giant snake, and a one-eyed monster (based on the Cyclops that appears...

There are many ways to make a small fortune; the easiest is to start with a large one. Brought before the Sultan of Kashgar, a barber regales him with stories of his many brothers, the fifth of whom planned...

The Arabian Nights is an exotic collection of stories that will grab your attention from the very first page. At the heart of the collection is Scheherazade, the bride of Schahriar, Sultan of Persia....

An old man leads a deer that appears completely tame; stranger still, he claims that it is really his wife. Nor is she the first of his household to have been turned into an animal: her current state...

A beautiful lady asked the porter in our story to carry her things home. The porter agreed and he was invited to stay for the night but on one condition – he was not supposed to speak of that which did...

Genies don't always grant three wishes, as a fisherman discovers when his nets drag up a small yellow pot sealed with lead. Opening the seal frees a genie, but unlike the one discovered by Aladdin, this...

Kosrouschah the Sultan overhears three sisters daydreaming about their future husbands: the eldest wishes to marry the Sultan's baker so she would never go hungry; the second wishes to marry the Sultan's...

Before Ali Cogia goes on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he hides a thousand pieces of gold in a jar of olives, and leaves it for safekeeping with a neighbour. But after seven years, the neighbour's curiosity...

Sidi-Nouman is happy with his new wife, Amina, except for one thing: her strange way of eating just a few grains of rice at each meal. One night, hearing her slip out of the house, Sidi-Nouman follows...