Shahrazad.net
The Thousand and One Nights also called The Arabian Nights' Entertainment,
Arabic Alf laylah wa laylah collection of Oriental stories of uncertain
date and authorship whose tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the
Sailor have almost become part of Western folklore.
As in much medieval European literature, the stories, fairytales, romances,
legends, fables, parables, anecdotes, and exotic or realistic
adventures are set within a frame story. Its scene is Central Asia or the
islands or peninsulae of India and China, where King Shahryar, after
discovering that during his absences his wife has been regularly
unfaithful, kills her and those with whom she has betrayed him. Then,
loathing all womankind, he marries and kills a new wife each day until no
more candidates can be found. His vizier, however, has two daughters,
Shahrazad (Scheherazade) and Dunyazad; and the elder, Shahrazad, having
devised a scheme to save herself and others, insists that her father give
her in marriage to the king. Each evening she tells a story, leaving it
incomplete and promising to finish it the following night. The stories are
so entertaining, and the king so eager to hear the end, that he puts off
her execution from day to day and finally abandons his cruel plan.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica