The origine of 1001 nights stories

The very first Indian narratives were probably transferred to The Middle Persian in late antiquity, under the rule of the Sassanids (224 to 651 A.D.) and extended to Persian fairy tales. The Middle Persian book of A Thousand Stories (Persian - hezar afsan) written in persian, the forerunner of the Arab collection, is lost, most likely burnt by the Arabs invasion, but is still mentioned in two 10th-century Arabic sources. Neverthe less main figures in Thousand and One Nights are real people from Persian history, for example the Sassanid Grand King Khosrau I (reg. 531 to 579). Since the Sassanids maintained close cultural contacts with the Mediterranean, elements of Greek legends – such as the Odyssey – probably also found their way into the fairytale cycle in their time.

The main frame story concerns Shahryār (Persian: شهريار‎, from Middle Persian šahr-dār, lit. "holder of realm", whom the narrator calls a "Sasanian king" ruling the Perian Empire spanning from Eastern Europe to India and China with it's capital in Isfahan and Shiraz, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭𐭱𐭲𐭥𐭩 Ērānshahr), and called the Neo-Persian Empire by historians.

Shahryār is shocked to learn that his brother's wife is unfaithful; discovering that his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her killed. In his bitterness and grief, he decides that all women are the same. Shahryār begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonor him. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade (Persian: شهْرزاد Shahrazād, from Middle Persian čehr شهر, "lineage" + āzād ازاد, "noble"), the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins another one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion of that tale as well, postpones her execution once again. This goes on for one thousand and one nights, hence the name.