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The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Volume 3 of 4
This great classic of world literature is familiar to most readers through the tales of the Arabian Nights--Scheherazade, Sinbad, Harun al-Rashid, Aladdin, Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves. This translation, the only complete and accurate one in English, presents an unexpurgated version of these famous stories. Wonderfully readable, they tells of a world of magical beauty, of the East and its enchantments, and of an art of living which was the product of one of the world's great civilizations.
576 pages, Paperback
Published September 4, 1986
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* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 5, 2017
Onto the third volume of The Thousand Nights and One Night. As ever the stories are a mixture of romance, fantasy, eroticism and ribaldry. Humans are helped or threatened by Jinnis, magic carpets are flown, an extraordinary number of people turn yellow, and ugly husbands spend their wedding nights with their heads stuffed down a privy.
The morals outlined in The Thousand Nights and One Night are somewhat unclear. It is not that the tales are lacking in morality. Plenty of the stories express moral opinions, and wrong-doers are punished, sometimes in barbarous ways where the punishment seems worse than the crime.
However the morality is inconsistent, reflecting the fact that the stories are the work of a number of writers. There are stories here in which murder is trivialised, theft and petty crimes are glorified, and marital infidelity is celebrated.
The latter point is surprising. There are considerably more comic tales about wives cheating on their husbands in this volume than there were in previous ones. Lest we forget, the stories are being related by Shahrazad to distract her husband, King Shahryar, who executed all his previous wives on their wedding night to prevent them from being unfaithful, as his first wife was.
It therefore seems tactless to harp on about other wives’ infidelities to this tyrant. Yet Shahryar is strangely silent during these tales. Only once does he complain about the number of cheating wives who go unpunished, and this does not prevent Shahrazad from telling more stories of the same nature.
In The Thousand Nights and One Night, marital betrayal is sometimes portrayed as a terrible thing, but it appears to be acceptable and amusing if the husband is old, ugly or too complacent about his wife.
The morals of the characters in the stories are underpinned by the Qu’ran, but even this is an uncertain guide. Characters are forever evoking Allah, no matter how absurd or immoral their justification. A husband and wife make a wager on the Qu’ran – so much for the prohibition on gambling. In one of the more preposterous passages, a Christian woman converts to Islam because her Muslim lover is so good in bed.
For those who believe that Islam is a religion of peace and that only extremists think otherwise, then I’m afraid this volume will offer you no relief. The language used to describe other religions is bigoted and violent throughout. Jews are condemned for not covering their wives when they have guests. Hindu icons of worship should be smashed. Understandably the worst ire is saved for Christians. They are described as perverts, and one of the stories is laced with constant curses against them, and invocations to war with them.
The other point of interest in this volume is that it contains the story of Aladdin. Aladdin gains access to a lamp and also a ring, both of which contain Jinnis, and he uses these to become rich and overcome his wicked ‘uncle’ The story is free for the main part of the usual gratuitous sexual scenes, which may explain why it has more easily found its way into juvenile fiction.
The stories in Volume 3 are often repetitive, and we have seen strands of them in the earlier volumes. However they are amusing and entertaining, and allow the reader to be transported into a pleasing world of fantasy for a few hours.
The morals outlined in The Thousand Nights and One Night are somewhat unclear. It is not that the tales are lacking in morality. Plenty of the stories express moral opinions, and wrong-doers are punished, sometimes in barbarous ways where the punishment seems worse than the crime.
However the morality is inconsistent, reflecting the fact that the stories are the work of a number of writers. There are stories here in which murder is trivialised, theft and petty crimes are glorified, and marital infidelity is celebrated.
The latter point is surprising. There are considerably more comic tales about wives cheating on their husbands in this volume than there were in previous ones. Lest we forget, the stories are being related by Shahrazad to distract her husband, King Shahryar, who executed all his previous wives on their wedding night to prevent them from being unfaithful, as his first wife was.
It therefore seems tactless to harp on about other wives’ infidelities to this tyrant. Yet Shahryar is strangely silent during these tales. Only once does he complain about the number of cheating wives who go unpunished, and this does not prevent Shahrazad from telling more stories of the same nature.
In The Thousand Nights and One Night, marital betrayal is sometimes portrayed as a terrible thing, but it appears to be acceptable and amusing if the husband is old, ugly or too complacent about his wife.
The morals of the characters in the stories are underpinned by the Qu’ran, but even this is an uncertain guide. Characters are forever evoking Allah, no matter how absurd or immoral their justification. A husband and wife make a wager on the Qu’ran – so much for the prohibition on gambling. In one of the more preposterous passages, a Christian woman converts to Islam because her Muslim lover is so good in bed.
For those who believe that Islam is a religion of peace and that only extremists think otherwise, then I’m afraid this volume will offer you no relief. The language used to describe other religions is bigoted and violent throughout. Jews are condemned for not covering their wives when they have guests. Hindu icons of worship should be smashed. Understandably the worst ire is saved for Christians. They are described as perverts, and one of the stories is laced with constant curses against them, and invocations to war with them.
The other point of interest in this volume is that it contains the story of Aladdin. Aladdin gains access to a lamp and also a ring, both of which contain Jinnis, and he uses these to become rich and overcome his wicked ‘uncle’ The story is free for the main part of the usual gratuitous sexual scenes, which may explain why it has more easily found its way into juvenile fiction.
The stories in Volume 3 are often repetitive, and we have seen strands of them in the earlier volumes. However they are amusing and entertaining, and allow the reader to be transported into a pleasing world of fantasy for a few hours.
June 28, 2020
Reading Vol 3 was my task for June and I finished it today. (I'll be doing Vol 4 in August).
To be honest I'm getting a bit bored of it now, the stories are getting repetitive - fabulous jewels, sumptuous banquets, multiple ways of doing sexual relations, extremely poor people being raised up and vice versa, etc, bridegrooms having their heads shoved down the privy while the brides' lovers do the duties.
The Aladdin and the Lamp story is in this volume (but without Widow Twanky or 'Wishee Washee').
The last 100 pages (570 in the book) did include some short and funny stories so they were ok.
If I were the king, I think I'd be about ready to chop off Shahrazad's head by now!
Just a reminder: these are absolutely not suitable for kids. Definitely NOT the very santitized stories you read as a child.
To be honest I'm getting a bit bored of it now, the stories are getting repetitive - fabulous jewels, sumptuous banquets, multiple ways of doing sexual relations, extremely poor people being raised up and vice versa, etc, bridegrooms having their heads shoved down the privy while the brides' lovers do the duties.
The Aladdin and the Lamp story is in this volume (but without Widow Twanky or 'Wishee Washee').
The last 100 pages (570 in the book) did include some short and funny stories so they were ok.
If I were the king, I think I'd be about ready to chop off Shahrazad's head by now!
Just a reminder: these are absolutely not suitable for kids. Definitely NOT the very santitized stories you read as a child.
March 26, 2025
This is the third volume in Mardrus and Mathers' translation of "The Book of the Thousand and One Nights". I liked it more than the two previous entries, as it contains some of the most famous stories – in particular, "Ala al-Din and the Wonderful Lamp" appears in this book, and what a great tale it is!
Other classic stories collected in this volume include "Land Abdallah and Sea Abdallah", "The Sleeper Wakened", and a few less-known but equally good ones like "Farizad of the Rose's Smile", "The Adventures of Hasan of Basrah" and "The Keys of Destiny".
In a different category, there's also a bunch of hilarious stories including "Khalifah the Fisherman", and several "Anecdotes", "Diwans", "Recitals" and "Parables" which are short tales that provide a much welcome comedy relief.
The same issues with the previous books still apply: lots of racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Christian and anti-Semitic material, it's definitely a hard read in modern times. And also lots of typos and formatting issues, in one case two pages appeared switched in the wrong order.
All problems aside, this book is a superb read for admirers of fantasy, and the exotic flavor of the stories adds a lot to the enjoyment. I'm looking forward for the final volume in this edition, only 187 nights remain.
Other classic stories collected in this volume include "Land Abdallah and Sea Abdallah", "The Sleeper Wakened", and a few less-known but equally good ones like "Farizad of the Rose's Smile", "The Adventures of Hasan of Basrah" and "The Keys of Destiny".
In a different category, there's also a bunch of hilarious stories including "Khalifah the Fisherman", and several "Anecdotes", "Diwans", "Recitals" and "Parables" which are short tales that provide a much welcome comedy relief.
The same issues with the previous books still apply: lots of racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Christian and anti-Semitic material, it's definitely a hard read in modern times. And also lots of typos and formatting issues, in one case two pages appeared switched in the wrong order.
All problems aside, this book is a superb read for admirers of fantasy, and the exotic flavor of the stories adds a lot to the enjoyment. I'm looking forward for the final volume in this edition, only 187 nights remain.
August 19, 2022
It took me a while to get through this volume as I was reading a lot of other books at the same time.
Of course one of the perks of this huge narrative is that there are lots of places to pause, either at the end of one of the stories or when Scheherezade (Shahrazad) takes a break at the end of each night.
Among the many tales in this volume is the well-known "Aladdin", entitled here as "The Tale Of Ala Al-Din and The Wonderful Lamp". Which differs quite a bit from the watered-down, Disneyfied version that most of us are familiar with.
Great stuff, though I may take a short break before I start the final book.
Of course one of the perks of this huge narrative is that there are lots of places to pause, either at the end of one of the stories or when Scheherezade (Shahrazad) takes a break at the end of each night.
Among the many tales in this volume is the well-known "Aladdin", entitled here as "The Tale Of Ala Al-Din and The Wonderful Lamp". Which differs quite a bit from the watered-down, Disneyfied version that most of us are familiar with.
Great stuff, though I may take a short break before I start the final book.
May 20, 2013
It's been taking me a ridiculous amount of time to get through all four volumes of the Book..., so it's going to be difficult to compare this to the last one (which I read more than a decade ago). In fact, I'm not even going to try.
This volume contains the usual range from intolerable to magical, with a liberal dose of tales (effectively) set in Egypt, as well as the famous story of Ala al-Din (a.k.a Aladdin) and the magic lamp (set in China...in as much as any of these stories are 'set' where they say they are). My personal least-favourite is 'The Loves of Zain al-Mawasif,' solely for its overuse of verse and song. 'The Strange Tale of the Mirror of Virgins,' on the other end of the spectrum, is practically a perfect example of the stories throughout the Thousand Nights; it has magic, secret rooms, humour and just enough sex to keep adults interested.
In as much as I don't really remember the first two volumes, this is as good a place as any to start reading them: a good, solid collection of (mostly) thoroughly enjoyable stories.
This volume contains the usual range from intolerable to magical, with a liberal dose of tales (effectively) set in Egypt, as well as the famous story of Ala al-Din (a.k.a Aladdin) and the magic lamp (set in China...in as much as any of these stories are 'set' where they say they are). My personal least-favourite is 'The Loves of Zain al-Mawasif,' solely for its overuse of verse and song. 'The Strange Tale of the Mirror of Virgins,' on the other end of the spectrum, is practically a perfect example of the stories throughout the Thousand Nights; it has magic, secret rooms, humour and just enough sex to keep adults interested.
In as much as I don't really remember the first two volumes, this is as good a place as any to start reading them: a good, solid collection of (mostly) thoroughly enjoyable stories.
May 23, 2012
Definitely a thousand stories in one book. Some parts I caught myself reading but not paying attention. I think I'm just not that much of a classics girl.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews