The Thousand and One Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights

Oral Literature
Islamic at the core, influences from Indian (Sanskrit) and Arabic non-Islamic as well. Tales told on the great trade routes by merchants staying at the various Inns. Tales told in the courts of the great Muslim Caliphs.
Questionable as “Islamic” literature—which is usually philosophically and historically serious, and is usually composed in verse. Most Islamic scholars feel the tales are unimportant to their tradition and serve to reinforce negative stereotypes about the Arab in the west: “devious tricksters, superstitious know-nothings, and misogynist despots indulging in exotic luxury and decadent sensuality.” One may even suggest that it is because of these elements that it has become so popular in the west.
A non-fixed body of work. The first known copies contain some stories—the first large manuscript discovered in Syria in the 14th century comprised 281 nights, and the title compelled scholars and translators to “discover” and in many cases invent the “lost” stories, so there are versions with 1001. In fact, the 281 stories lack the most famous stories—of Sindbad the Sailor and Ali Baba and the forty thieves and Aladdin. Most would say that as a “folk” tradition, there is no reason for the sanctity of the original to be preserved, that a flexible approach is true to form in the tradition.
In 1001 Nights, there is usually a fairly significant relation of the stories to the frame narrative. In the Prologue, the table is set with the themes that persist throughout the readings.
Prologue
The story wastes no time in introducing the reason for the king’s anger—the infidelity (instant!) of his wife. It seems odd that the cause for the greatest grief is the fact that he is alone, unique in his suffering, as if singled out. And that later he finds relief in the fact that an even worse infidelity could afflict his brother.
The account of Shahrayar’s wife’s infidelity is shocking, to say the least. We begin with transvestism, moving to public group copulation, and the appearance of Mas’ud—from out of the trees!—is a detail that might add further humiliation.
And the fact that they carried on until noon!
The relief to Shahzaman comes in the fact that he shares the misfortune—this is our common lot.
A theme that is often repeated is that of curiosity, the desire to know. It is in the Prologue and it is also in the stories—such as the wife who wants to know what the animals are saying even though it will cost her husband his life. Here, despite Shahzaman’s wish to protect Shahzahar by withholding info., the latter is insistent.
In the king’s witness to the perfidy of his wife, the story gets even more insulting, as Mas’ud finds it necessary to call the wife a slut.
The solution, to give up the trappings of royalty, seems a bit random, but off they go to seek someone whose misfortune is greater than theirs.
Note the emphasis on the “black” slaves and demons to accentuate the evil.
Now, if betrayal by women is the mark of suffering, than it seems only right that it takes no time at all to find someone of greater misfortune. Here the giant demon, despite lock and key and ocean and big horns, has been cuckolded 100 times. So far! The strange joy of the brothers as they realize that “great is woman’s cunning” is terrific stuff.
The behavior of Shahrayar is akin to that of Gilgamesh, who took each bride on her wedding night. Also caused the people to call down the plague on his head, etc.
The saying “I would be sitting pretty, but for my curiosity” runs through the tales.
Here is the prime example of insatiable curiosity. The wife’s earnestness to know what the husband is laughing at extends all the way to being willing to see him die so that she may know.
We are being introduced to the power of the story through the vizier, but it is ironic that these stories have no hold whatsoever on the listener at hand, Shahrazade. Simply dismisses him.
In the children’s lore there is a kind of sleeping potion so that the king is not inclined to make husbandly demands of S. Here, she simply says, “Hey, when he’s finished with me. . .”
Here is when we begin the threads of our tales—the endless deferral of the ending that allows curiosity, again, to come to the fore. This time it is curiosity which goes to the good, to prolong life and the state of “sitting pretty.
We see that it is the demon’s curiosity about the tales of the three old men with the animals which cause him to grant, a third at a time, some stake in the life of the man who he has condemned to die. This merchant’s offense is an accident, but nonetheless he is so condemned. It is a strict correspondence between grief and desire for revenge, and to some extent we can even sympathize with the demon. All the more so when he defers for the year the merchant asks to say his goodbyes and to put his affairs in order.
The tales to which he listens, however, all have some kind of moral to the story. The deert punished for envy and avarice, her own desire for revenge against the favored mistress and the son that she could not have. And for which she gets her just desserts—transformed like the others.
In the tale of the two dogs, we get another tale of envy. But first we are introduced to an extraordinarily lovely and patient protagonist in the merchant who is always willing to share in his profits, and then, when he is ultimately wronged, refuses to forget about forgiveness (even now he is trying to get his brothers transformed back). The brothers are greedy and envious of their own patient brother’s good fortune. Plus, they live in dissipation.
By the third story there is a very brief account. Like they couldn’t wait to get tot the end of this cycle. The wife’s offence is almost like that committed against Shahrayar—perhaps that accounts for the brevity of the telling—of course she is well punished for her perfidy.
With the fisherman we come back around again to accidental offences and despotic behavior (is this a suggestion that the king’s behavior is “demonic”?). Unless we are to go for 1001 of these, we have to stop somewhere, but of course you are free to go for more.