“The Thousand and One Nights” is a collection of tales, legends, anecdotes, and fables from different cultures, mostly Middle East and India. It has been written for centuries by different authors. The collection of legends became popular all over the planet, being an impressive literary monument. The prototypes of the story include real historical characters, Harun al Rashid, an Iranian caliph, and his Vizir Jafar al-Barmaki. The frame composition of the story is most likely to be taken from Indian literature tradition. However, there are different theories concerning the creation of this book and its authors. The tales have different sources, including Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Mesopotamia, and Greece. When the stories became known in the West, they became part of the Western folklore culture.
The most famous stories from the book are the tales about Aladdin, Sindbad the Sailor, and Ali Baba, which were added to the corpus of stories much later than most part of them. The story about Aladdin and his magic lamp was depicted in a Disney cartoon, which made it even more popular across the globe. “The Thousand and One Nights” have also influenced different authors and filmmakers. Fir example, such poets and writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Angela Carter, Voltaire included the images and plots from this book in their stories and poems. A Japanese animated film, called “Sinbad: Sora Tobu Hime to Himitsu”, was also inspired by it. Paolo Pasolini has filmed an adaptation of the story, called “Il Fiore Delle Mille e Una Note”. Thus, “The Thousand and One Nights” have an immense impact on the Eastern and Western cultures, being a masterpiece created by many authors.