TALES OF THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

London, UK: Penguin, 1973. Penguin Paperback, 20th Printing . Paperback. Good/None as Issued. William Harvey (Wood Engravings). Text/As New showing trace discoloration to text edges & shelfwear. Softcover/Good; sound w/edge & surface wear & faint creasings to back. Folktales of Indian, Persian & Arab origins. First complied from a lost Persian book of fairy tales titled Hazar Afsanach (A Thousand Legends), translated to Arabic cerca A.D. 850. This selected anthology follows MacNaghten's Culcutta Edition (1839 - 42). Lively, secular tales of medieval Islam. T'is said there was a Persian king whose wife was unfaithful, as was his sister-in-law to his brother. So it is he took to marrying one virgin after another, executing each next morn. Then there was Scheherazade. She, on the marriage night, tells the king a tale less its ending; curious, the king postpones her execution. The next night she concludes the tale and begins another, again, short the ending, and thus extends her life. So it is for 1,001 nights wherupon she is granted the right to live out her natural life span. 407 pgs w/engravings of William Harvey. Among the selected tales in that of Aladin of the Enchanted lamp. How many knew Aladin was born & raised in China and his parents, an established tailor & fabric weaver were Muslims of Moorish heritage?! Strong copy in a tired softcover.