The Arabian Nights: Full Book Summary

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The Arabian Nights is a collection of stories, all of which revolve around one main plot: a new wife, Shahrazad, must tell her husband, King Shahrayar, a new story every night lest he kill her in the morning. While some stories stand alone, several of Shahrazad’s stories contain a number of shorter tales, which are “told” by characters in Shahrazad’s story. In this way, readers hear numerous stories, told from various points of view, despite the fact that Shahrazad is the main storyteller in the text.

Before Shahrazad’s first story is shared, however, The Arabian Nights opens with two brothers, Shahrayar and Shahzaman, who discover that their wives are unfaithful. They set out to find a man more unfortunate than they. When they do, they return to Shahrayar’s palace, where he murders his wife. He decides to marry a new woman each night and kill her in the morning as revenge on women, all of whom he now distrusts. Shahrayar kills many until he marries his vizier’s daughter, Shahrazad. In an attempt to dissuade Shahrazad from marrying Shahrayar, the vizier tells her “The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey” and “The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife,” two stories about miscalculation and penitent women. The stories do not sway Shahrazad, however. Her plan is to tell Shahrayar a new story each night and leave him in suspense, which would cause him to spare her life while waiting for the next tale.

Shahrazad begins with “The Story of the Merchant and the Demon,” a cycle of tales that revolve around a merchant whom a demon threatens to kill. Three old men appear and bargain with the demon for one-third of the merchant’s life if they can tell a story that will entertain the demon. The first two men tell stories of revenge and sorcery, of mistresses and jealous brothers. While readers do not hear the third man’s story, the demon spares the merchant’s life.

The next cycle of Shahrazad’s tales revolves around a poor fisherman and a demon. The fisherman tells the demon “The Tale of King Yunan and the Sage Duban” and “The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot.” A character in the first of these tales tells “The Tale of the King’s Son and the She-Ghoul,” two stories about revenge and trust. Shahrazad then returns to the fisherman and a mystery of four colored fish. A king in that tale discovers a young man who tells “The Tale of the Enchanted King,” about an unfaithful wife killed by a king in disguise. Eventually, the king rewards the fisherman by giving him one of his daughters to marry.

The next group of stories begins with “The Tale of the Porter and the Three Ladies,” in which a porter accompanies a woman home to two sisters. They are joined by a caliph, his vizier, a servant, and three dervishes. The sisters make the men promise not to question anything they see, and when they do, they must die. The sisters will spare them, however, if each man tells his tale. What follows are the tales told by the dervishes, which include details such as hidden subterranean rooms, plans of revenge, demons, and captive sons. Embedded in the second dervish’s tale is “The Tale of the Envious and the Envied,” a story told by one of the captive sons. In this tale, a demon spares a man’s life but turns him into an ape. The third dervish talks about a man who accidentally kills someone.

Shahrazad then visits her sister, Dinarzad, and they exchange their own stories, including “The Tale of the First Lady, the Mistress of the House” and “The Tale of the Second Lady, the Flogged One.”

In one story, the caliph from “The Tale of the Porter and the Three Ladies” embarks on another set of tales. The first, “The Story of the Three Apples,” involves a murdered girl. A slave complicit in the crime tells “The Story of the Two Viziers,” about two brothers who marry and have children on the same days. Their children grow up, eventually marry one another, separate for many years, and then reunite. The tale is so entertaining, the slave who tells it is freed.

Shahrazad next begins a long series of tales centered around a hunchback who chokes on a fish bone. Four people take the blame as his body is passed from place to place: a Christian broker, a steward, a Jewish physician, and a tailor. Each has a story to tell. The tailor’s tale leads to another series of stories told by a barber who will not stop talking, told to entertain a caliph at a banquet. The barber tells tales about six brothers, each of whom has a physical deformity. In each case, the brothers end up destitute, beaten, maimed, banished, and/or arrested and move in with the barber. The cycle of stories concludes when the barber, now old, pulls the fish bone from the hunchback’s throat and the man revives.

The Arabian Nights ends with three love stories. In “The Story of Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Bakkar and the Slave-Girl Shams al-Nahar,” a young man falls in love with a slave of a caliph. The lovers are befriended by a druggist and then by a jeweler, but after trysts, robberies, and intermediaries, the lovers both die from lovesickness.

In the second story, “The Story of the Slave-Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan,” a slave is promised to a king, but the king’s kind vizier’s son, Nur al-Din, falls in love with her first. Nur al-Din wastes his money and risks his lover to an evil vizier, which causes the couple to flee. In a new land, the caliph befriends them and appeals to the king to allow the couple to return. Again, the evil vizier makes trouble, but in an abrupt ending, Nur al-Din kills the vizier instead, and everyone lives happily.

In the third love story, “The Story of Jullanar of the Sea,” a Persian king falls in love with a sea creature named Jullanar, who bears him a son. The son, Badr, becomes king and wants to marry Jauhara, the beautiful daughter of a tyrannical king who will not give his daughter away. Badr is turned into a bird twice, goes to the City of Magicians, and meets Queen Lab. Eventually, he returns to human form and marries Jauhara, and they spend the rest of their days happily.

The Arabian Nights ends with a postscript explaining that Shahrazad’s plan worked. She became queen to Shahrayar and bore him three sons.