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“his deep eye stirr’d / With merriment of kingly pride” as the caliph contemplates the sheer brilliance of his domain.
    The historical Haroun is remembered as a diligent ruler who was an early exponent of
realpolitik
, maintaining cordial diplomatic relations with Imperial China while forging a political understanding with the Holy Roman Emperor, the mighty Frankish king, Charlemagne. As an example of Haroun’s methods, in return for Charlemagne harassing the breakaway Moors who were pressuring France from Spain, Haroun promised to politically badger the Byzantine Christians of the Near East, perpetual thorns in the side of Pope Leo III and the Holy Roman Empire. AlthoughHaroun and Charlemagne never met, gifts and communications were exchanged as mutual respect was forged between two rulers seeking their respective national securities.
    For all his virtues, however, Haroun’s reign is not spotless. His systematic and seemingly inexplicable destruction of the powerful Barmakid family—Persians who administered much of his kingdom (his vizier, Jafar, belonged to this family and died as a result)—“marks his reign with a stain of infamy, with a blot of blood never to be washed away.” This act was also a serious political blunder that left the Abbasids without their most important supporters and servants. Verdicts regarding such malicious acts are best left to history’s judgment, but within the world of the
Arabian Nights
, Haroun al-Rashid remains the benevolent overseer of a magnificent expanse, the personification of the glory that is the Muslim past. Such is the regard in which he is held both within and without Islam that each stanza of Lord Tennyson’s poem ends with fond variations of the lines—a kind of punctuation to the caliph’s historical age—“For it was in the golden prime / Of good Haroun Alrashid.”
    The dynasty of Haroun and the other Abbasid monarchs did not survive—weakened over time by internal decay, invasion (Mongol hordes sacked Baghdad in 1258, murdering the last caliph) and the rise of the Seljuk Turks—but its importance to the history of civilization is secure. Besides the caliphate’s other myriad contributions to world culture, it is in this crucible of scientific inquiry, refinement and multi-ethnic interaction that the earliest versions of the story collection known in Arabic as
Alf Laila wa Laila
, or
The Thousand Nights and One Night
, were born.

    Whatever the first
Arabian Nights
’ stories were, wherever and whenever they arose, many are products of the oral tradition asexpressed through the art of storytelling. Though words and speech never relate exactly the same way twice, storytellers portray episodes with distinct beginnings, middles and ends to form a comprehensive narrative arc, prompting listeners to fashion for themselves interior images of characters, settings and actions.
    This is what happened with many of the earliest tales forming
Alf Laila wa Laila
. Travel and trade mean exchanges not only of goods but also of ideas and information. Although their exact provenance is unknown, based on such internal evidence as cultural references and terminology it is believed that many of the stories in the
Nights
originated with Indian, Arab, Persian, Greek, Roman and possibly Chinese travellers, merchants and soldiers plying travel routes stretching from the Balkans to the China Sea. Rest stops were spent around campfires or in the occasional caravanserai—walled hostels catering to travellers—dotting the roads. At these times, it was customary to swap stories to while away the restful hours before setting out again. The more popular tales were thus transferred from place to place while being continually modified according to regional customs and circumstances, much as a joke will assume local colour and familiar allusions for better comprehension.
    Eventually, some of these stories were absorbed