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The 1,001 Nights
In a new collection that brings together the work of eleven notable translators, with an introduction by the bestselling Iranian-American author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi, and original illustrations by Syrian artist Rama Duwaji, the Restless Classics edition of 1,001 Nights showcases the breadth and imagination of these legendary tales from the Arab world.
Beginning as an oral storytelling tradition long before the first authoritative manuscript was composed in the 14th century in Syria, which was rendered into French in the 1700s, spawning an exoticized portrait of the “Orient” that still informs Western stereotypes, the tales of the 1,001 Nights have captivated readers for centuries. We begin with violence, and the power of storytelling: When his wife is unfaithful, King Shahryar takes revenge on all womankind by marrying a virgin and murdering her at the end of every night—until one named Scheherazade asks to tell a story to her sister. When dawn comes and the story is still unfinished, Shahryar allows her to live and continue the tale the next night—and Scheherezade does so for one thousand and one nights until the King gives up on killing.
In her insightful introduction to the Restless Classics edition of 1,001 Nights, Iranian author Azar Nafisi describes Scheherezade as the true heroine of the tales for those in oppressive regimes who find power and courage in her example: “Shahrzad's own story contains a hidden theme, old and timeless—the theme of what can happen when reality closes all doors; when life seems uncontrollable and unchangeable; when life means death; when one's own life appears to be an insoluble puzzle and only one's own imagination can lead one out of a predicament.”
There is another vital protagonist in the history of this book: the translator. Told and retold and recreated in the process, these tales are a case study of translators as co-creators. Over the centuries, each translator, deliberately and otherwise, has added to the narrative current, shaping this endless river of stories that is never the same twice. The Restless Classics edition is the first to showcase a wide variety of English translations, presenting a new frame to experience the 1,001 Nights.

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The 1,001 Nights
In a new collection that brings together the work of eleven notable translators, with an introduction by the bestselling Iranian-American author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi, and original illustrations by Syrian artist Rama Duwaji, the Restless Classics edition of 1,001 Nights showcases the breadth and imagination of these legendary tales from the Arab world.
Beginning as an oral storytelling tradition long before the first authoritative manuscript was composed in the 14th century in Syria, which was rendered into French in the 1700s, spawning an exoticized portrait of the “Orient” that still informs Western stereotypes, the tales of the 1,001 Nights have captivated readers for centuries. We begin with violence, and the power of storytelling: When his wife is unfaithful, King Shahryar takes revenge on all womankind by marrying a virgin and murdering her at the end of every night—until one named Scheherazade asks to tell a story to her sister. When dawn comes and the story is still unfinished, Shahryar allows her to live and continue the tale the next night—and Scheherezade does so for one thousand and one nights until the King gives up on killing.
In her insightful introduction to the Restless Classics edition of 1,001 Nights, Iranian author Azar Nafisi describes Scheherezade as the true heroine of the tales for those in oppressive regimes who find power and courage in her example: “Shahrzad's own story contains a hidden theme, old and timeless—the theme of what can happen when reality closes all doors; when life seems uncontrollable and unchangeable; when life means death; when one's own life appears to be an insoluble puzzle and only one's own imagination can lead one out of a predicament.”
There is another vital protagonist in the history of this book: the translator. Told and retold and recreated in the process, these tales are a case study of translators as co-creators. Over the centuries, each translator, deliberately and otherwise, has added to the narrative current, shaping this endless river of stories that is never the same twice. The Restless Classics edition is the first to showcase a wide variety of English translations, presenting a new frame to experience the 1,001 Nights.

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The 1,001 Nights

The 1,001 Nights

Overview

In a new collection that brings together the work of eleven notable translators, with an introduction by the bestselling Iranian-American author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi, and original illustrations by Syrian artist Rama Duwaji, the Restless Classics edition of 1,001 Nights showcases the breadth and imagination of these legendary tales from the Arab world.
Beginning as an oral storytelling tradition long before the first authoritative manuscript was composed in the 14th century in Syria, which was rendered into French in the 1700s, spawning an exoticized portrait of the “Orient” that still informs Western stereotypes, the tales of the 1,001 Nights have captivated readers for centuries. We begin with violence, and the power of storytelling: When his wife is unfaithful, King Shahryar takes revenge on all womankind by marrying a virgin and murdering her at the end of every night—until one named Scheherazade asks to tell a story to her sister. When dawn comes and the story is still unfinished, Shahryar allows her to live and continue the tale the next night—and Scheherezade does so for one thousand and one nights until the King gives up on killing.
In her insightful introduction to the Restless Classics edition of 1,001 Nights, Iranian author Azar Nafisi describes Scheherezade as the true heroine of the tales for those in oppressive regimes who find power and courage in her example: “Shahrzad's own story contains a hidden theme, old and timeless—the theme of what can happen when reality closes all doors; when life seems uncontrollable and unchangeable; when life means death; when one's own life appears to be an insoluble puzzle and only one's own imagination can lead one out of a predicament.”
There is another vital protagonist in the history of this book: the translator. Told and retold and recreated in the process, these tales are a case study of translators as co-creators. Over the centuries, each translator, deliberately and otherwise, has added to the narrative current, shaping this endless river of stories that is never the same twice. The Restless Classics edition is the first to showcase a wide variety of English translations, presenting a new frame to experience the 1,001 Nights.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781632062109
Publisher: Restless Books
Publication date: 01/01/2025
Series: Restless Classics
Pages: 384
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Sir Richard Francis Burton was a British explorer, scholar and soldier. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood in 1886. His works and letters extensively criticized colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career.


Edward William Lane as a British orientalist, translator and lexicographer. He is known for his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians and the Arabic-English Lexicon, as well as his translations of One Thousand and One Nights and Selections from the Kur-án. Lane’s version of One Thousand and One Nights first saw light as a monthly serial from 1838 to 1840, and was published in three volumes in 1840. A revised edition was released in 1859.


Andrew Lang was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. His Blue Fairy Book (1889) was a beautifully produced and illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic.


Jonathan Scott was an English orientalist, best known for his translation of the Arabian Nights. In 1805 the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford in recognition of his attainments in oriental literature. His edition of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, revised from Antoine Galland's French version, was the earliest effort to render the Arabian Nights into literary English.


Nora Archibald Smith (1859–1934) was an American children's author of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and sister of Kate Douglas Wiggin. Nora and Kate co-authored and co-edited a series of children's books, including The Arabian Nights: Their Best-known Tales (1909).


Ilan Stavans was born in Mexico City and is the Publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and A Critic’s Journey. He has edited The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, the three-volume set Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, among dozens of other volumes. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Chile’s Presidential Medal, the International Latino Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. Stavans’s work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted to the stage and screen. A cofounder of the Great Books Summer Program at Amherst, Stanford, Chicago, Oxford, and Dublin, he is the host of the NPR podcast "In Contrast."


Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and composed collections of children's songs. Besides the talent for story-telling, she was a musician, sang well, and composed settings for her poems.


Azar Nafisi is best known as the author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which electrified its readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran. In 1981, she was expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the mandatory Islamic veil and did not resume teaching until 1987. Dr. Nafisi returned to the United States in 1997 — earning national respect and international recognition for advocating on behalf of Iran's intellectuals, youth, and especially young women.


Laurence Housman was an English playwright, writer and illustrator during the Victorian era. Housman was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, one of seven children including an older brother and sister, the classical scholar and poet A. E. Housman and the writer Clemence Housman. Housman turned more and more to writing after his eyesight began to fail. He was also an advocate of the Suffrage movement in England.


John Payne was an English poet and translator. Initially he pursued a legal career and had associated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Later he became involved with limited edition publishing and the Villon Society. He is now best known for his translations of Boccaccio's Decameron, The Arabian Nights and the Diwan Hafez.


Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Azar NafisiChronologyAbracadabra: An Editor’s Note —Ilan Stavans
Foreword: In the Name of God —(uncredited) Scheherazade Enthralls King Shahrayar —Edward W. Lane (1841) The Story of the Fisherman and the Jinni —Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith (1909) The Old Man’s Eyes —Ilan Stavans (2021) Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves —Edward W. Lane (1841) The Sleeper Awakened —Laurence Housman (1907) Judar and His Brethren —Richard F. Burton (1885) The Jewish Cadi and His Pious Wife —John Payne (1882-1884) Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp —Richard F. Burton (1885) The Story of the Blind Baba-Abdalla —Andrew Lang (1898) The History of Codadad and His Brothers —Jonathan Scott (1811) Ibrahim of Mosul and the Devil —John Payne (1882-1884) The Concealed Promise —Rafaella Lewis (1946) The Story of the Merchant and the Jinni —Andrew Lang (1898) My Brother’s Dream —Ilan Stavans (2021) Gharib and His Brother Ajib —Richard F. Burton (1885) The City of Brass —Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith (1909) The Story of the Husband and the Parrot —Andrew Lang (1898) Sinbad the Sailor —Laurence Housman (1907) The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade —Edgar Allan Poe (1850) The Never-Ending Tale —(uncredited)
Suggestions for Further Reading
A Guide for Restless ReadersAbout the Contributors

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