The Arabian Nights starts with the tale around which all of the others swirl:
It tells of the betrayed, misogynist King Shahriyar who, in reaction to his wife's infidelity, spent three years bedding virgins and executing them at daybreak. Enter Scheherazade, the well read daughter of the King's vizier who, worried for her father's life if he could not keep supplying Shahriyar with young girls, begged to be married to him herself. The post-coital, restless King agreed to be told a story and Scheherazade started with the tale of The Merchant and the Jinni finishing just before dawn with the words "How can this compare with what I shall tell you this coming night?"
Intrigued, the King postponed the execution and for the next thousand nights Scheherazade told him a whirl of stories within stories full of (in the words of A.S. Byatt) "...everything a tale should have. Sex, death, treachery, vengeance, magic, humour, wit, surprise and a happy ending". It was for Byatt "the greatest story ever told" and ended three children later with Scheherazade's life being spared.
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