Tausendundeine Nacht

Tausendundeine Nacht, the Thousand and One Nights or Arabian Nights, a collection of oriental tales, some of which date from the 8th c. Scheherazade, the King's wife for a night, tells the stories night by night in order to postpone her execution, fixed each day for the morrow. In the end the King is won over and grants her her life. It is one of the earliest examples of a series of stories with a narrative frame (see Rahmen).

The work became known in Europe through the French translation of A. Galland (Les mille et une nuits, 12 vols., 1704-17). The standard German translation, which goes back to the original, is by E. Littmann (Die Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten (6 vols., 1921-8; 4th edn., 1960) with an introduction by H. von Hofmannsthal.