151 Stories of Arabian Nights

Jaafar, the Barmecide, was crucified by Haroon Al-Rashid. An order was passed that whoever cried for the dead man would also be crucified. An Arab called Bassorah used to bring poems in praise of Jaafar and was rewarded with a 1,000 dinars by Jaafar every year. When he saw the hanging body of Jaafar, he […]

A thief repented before the Almighty for his deeds, and opened a trading shop. One night when he had locked his store and went home, an artful thief who had disguised himself as a merchant pulled out keys from his pocket.  He deceived the watchman and opened the shop and lit another candle he had

Once upon a time Jaafar, the Barmecide and Haroon Al-Rashid were on a drinking binge. Al-Rashid being tipsy asked for the slave girl possessed by Jaafar either by sale or gift which was refused. Then Al-Rashid said he must have the girl who was triply divorced. Jaafar also mentioned about triply divorced but would neither

One day the Caliph Haroon Al-Rashid was in a pensive mood and Ali, the Persian was called to cheer him up with his stories and anecdotes. Ali asked if he would like a story heard by him or seen by him. The Caliph ordered for any story that was worth telling. Ali began, “Once when

During the pilgrimage to Mecca a man cried out aloud, begging the Allah to make a certain woman estranged with her husband so that he might meet her. The enraged crowd brought him to the Emir who ordered him beheaded. The man pleaded to be heard and narrated that when he was walking one day,

Once Abdullah bin Abi Kilabah went towards the deserts of Al-Yaman in the search of his lost she-camel when he came across a city of palaces and buildings but with no people.  The palaces were full of precious stones, pearls and gold that Abdullah carried some home. The Caliph of Al-Hajjaj also came to know

Hisham bin Abd Al-Malik bin Marwan, the Caliph, was hunting an antelope. As he was chasing, he came across an Arab youth grazing his sheep. As the Caliph lost sight of the antelope, his anger turned towards the boy and accused him of letting the antelope escape. But the youth retorted by calling him ill-mannered

In the royal city of Labtayt, a new King of the Greeks used to set a new and strong lock upon the tower until there were 4 and 24 locks on the gate, apropos the number of Kings. One day, a certain man not from the royal house intended to open these locks to see

One day, Maan bin Zaidah went out hunting animals. In the course of hunting, he got separated from his soldiers and was left alone to do the hunt. He saw a herd of gazelles and slaughtered one to separate the skin from flesh. As he was cutting the animal, he saw a man from Kzaah

Maan bin Zaidah was fond of hunting animals and birds and chasing wild animals. One day he was on a hunting trip with his soldiers and felt thirsty. There was no water with him or with any of his soldiers. Suddenly he saw three damsels going his way with three skins of water. Shahrazad perceived

They say that the Hatim of the Tai tribe was buried atop a mountain and his grave was set over by two troughs hewn out of two rocks and stone girls with tangled hair. The mountain had a running water stream and the campers always heard loud outcries of girls in the night until daybreak,

Once a sparrow had devotion to a peacock and treated it like his king, serving him well from dawn to dusk. The ‘king’ peacock appointed the sparrow as his Prime Minister. He was the first to meet the Peacock and last to go after serving well. One day he was in a pensive mood after

A weaver in a certain village worked very hard but could not make enough to live comfortably. Once he was invited to a wedding in the neighbourhood where he saw many people of high class wearing good attires, and thought of changing his profession so that he might earn well. Just then he saw one

Once there was a man, professionally a thief, who though never made his way into any of the street markets of the city he stayed, yet collected a lot of money. He had a monkey too. One fine day, he passed a man selling worn clothes in the market to the people who didn’t show

Once a wealthy merchant of Sindah took all his mer-chandise on his camels and set out to other cities to sell them. On his way he met two sharpers who pretended to be traders and requested to be taken with him. The merchant trusted them and agreed to travel along with them. When they halted