在古代一个阿拉伯岛国中，国王杀死了不忠的王后，之后每娶一位女子，次日便马她杀掉。宰相女儿哈拉查德聪慧过人，为挽救众多女子的生命，毅然嫁给国王。每晚给国王讲故事，至精彩处都停下来，留到次日再讲。国王为听完精彩的故事只好留下她。渐渐地，国王被故事感到，终与舍哈拉查德白头揩老。收信了舍哈拉查德讲述的缠绵悱恻的爱情故事、惊险揧的历险故事、扣人心弦的斗智故事等。故事曲折离奇、绚丽多彩、充满了任意驰骋的想象和对美好生活的向往。

Who told the stories first, or in what tongue, we cannot surely say. When, from 1704 to 1712, Antoine Galland rubbed his translator's magic lamp, and spilled out the gold of the Mille et une Nuits before the delighted eyes of Europe, he hazarded the opinion that the Nights had come to Arabia from India, by way of Persia; but a hundred years later scholars were still arguing the respective claims of those three countries to the stories, and even now, another hundred years later, the end is not yet. Some authorities follow Galland back to India; others, like Burton, would stop at Persia; still others insist that the majority of the tales are Arabian in substance as in form. And questions of date remain equally unsettled. When were the earliest of the stories written? When were the latest? And when did the whole collection, known to Arabian readers as Kitab AlfLaylah wa Laylah, and to English readers as The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, or, more briefly and commonly, The Arabian Nights, take on its present form? Should thecompilation of immortal yarns spun by Shahrazad be assigned, assome would have it, to the thirteenth century, or, as others would haveit, to the fifteenth? Is it, indeed, a compilation, or the work of a single author?
Important though these questions may be, there is no reason to give space here to the various and lengthy arguments they have evoked, but it is only fitting that Sir Richard Burton, in his privileged role of translator of the Nights now spread before us, should be allowed to have his say; and if his word is not the last word, it is one that has not yet been discredited. He writes, in the Terminal Essay with which he closes his great translation:
"To conclude: From the data above given I hold myself justified in drawing the following deductions: --
1. The framework of the book is purely Persian perfunctorily arabised; the arch-type being the Hazer Afsanah.
2. The oldest tales, such as Sindbad(the Seven Wazirs)an
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Introduction
King Shahryar and His Brother
The Fisherman and the Jinni
The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad
The Tale of the Three Apples
Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyub, the Distraught,the Thrall o'Love
The Hermits
Hatim of the Tribe of Tayy
Tale of Ma'an Son of Zaidah and the Badawi
The City of Many-columned Iram and Abdullah Son of Abi Kilabah
The Sweep and the Noble Lady
Ali the Persian
The Man Who Stole the Dish of Gold Wherein the Dog Ate
The Ruined Man Who Became Rich Again Through a Dream
The Ebony Horse
The Angel of Death with the Proud King and the
Devout Man
Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman
The City of Brass
The Lady and Her Five Suitors
Judar and His Brethren
Julnar the Sea-born and Her Son King Badr Basim of Persia
Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad
Abu Kir the Dyer and Abu Sir the Barber
Alaeddin; or, the Wonderful Lamp
Ali Baba and the forty Thieves
Ma'aruf the Cobbler and His Wife Fatimah
Conclusion
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