The Arabian Nights

Image from here

I just finished reading one of the popular classics: The Arabian Nights. Or, some of us might know it as One Thousand and One Nights (Kisah Seribu Satu Malam). It is a book telling 1001 stories in West and South Asia.

Overall, I think this book is quite interesting because it has a unique prologue. So, the story started with a sultan whose heart was so broken that every evening he married a girl and killed them the next day. One day, a girl named Scheherazade volunteered to marry him, and believed that she knew how to end this evil act. The next morning after their wedding, Scheherazade begged the sultan to let her tell a story, to muse her little sister before she died. Aaaand, it continued. A story after another. She told a story every morning, and let the story unfinished so she could tell the rest of the story tomorrow, and so the sultan spared her life one more day. It continued after 1001 stories (Hm,actually I didn't really count it heheh. Is it really 1001?).

The stories themselves are, in my opinion, exotic, in a way that they explored the culture of India, Persia, Arab, etc, and magical, since they often included some magic in the story, like the talking bird or witches or monsters. I think this is amusing. ;)