The Arabian Nights: Thousand Nights and a Night - Vol. VIII

The Arabian Nights: Thousand Nights and a Night is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. The stories are primarily told by Scheherazade a legendary queen and storyteller who saves her own life by telling her husband King Shahryar a new tale every night for one thousand and one nights. Volume VIII of Richard F. Burtons translation of The Arabian Nights contains several popular tales including Abu Kir and Abu Sir The Story of the City of Brass and The Sleeper and the Waker. In Abu Kir and Abu Sir two friends compete for the hand of a beautiful woman but ultimately both fall in love with her and decide to share her. Their unusual arrangement leads to a series of misadventures and misunderstandings. The Story of the City of Brass tells the tale of a group of travelers who stumble upon a deserted city made entirely of brass. The city is cursed and the travelers must navigate a series of obstacles and challenges in order to lift the curse and restore the city to its former glory. The Sleeper and the Waker follows the adventures of a young man named Harun al-Rashid who falls asleep for a hundred years and wakes up to find himself in a world vastly different from the one he knew. He meets a group of people who have also been asleep for a century and together they explore the new world and try to make sense of the changes that have taken place.