This is a collection of stories from various authors, translators, and scholars spanning thousands of years. These stories are an amalgamation of mythology and folk tales from the Indian subcontinent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has been found but several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between 800 and 900 AD. The stories are woven together under the device of a long series of cliffhangers told by Shahrazad to her husband, King Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales from this collection have become independently famous, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.