During the Islamic Golden Age, a collection of Middle Eastern folktales known as One Thousand and One Nights was compiled in Arabic. Because of the earliest English-language edition's (c. 1706–1721) rendering of the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment, it is sometimes referred to in English as the Arabian Nights. Over many centuries, writers, translators, and scholars from West, Central, and South Asia, as well as North Africa, assembled the work. Some stories have literary roots in Arabic, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Persian, and Mesopotamian literature from the ancient and medieval periods. Many of the tales were originally folktales from the Abbasid and Mamluk eras, but others—particularly the frame story—were likely inspired by the Pahlavi Persian novel Hezr Afsn, which itself had some Indian influences. The framing technique of the story of the ruler Shahryar being told by his wife Scheherazade is a feature of all copies of the Nights. The subsequent tales develop from the first; some are standalone while others are framed within other tales. Only a few hundred nights are included in certain editions, whereas 1001 or more are present. Although the verse is occasionally employed for songs, puzzles, and to show strong emotion, the majority of the content is written in prose.
Andrew Lang was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to anthropology who lived from 31 March 1844 to 20 July 1912. He is primarily known for being a folklore and fairy story collector. At the University of St. Andrews, he is honored through the Andrew Lang lectures. In the Scottish Borders town of Selkirk, Lang was born in 1844. He was the oldest of the eight children born to John Lang, the town clerk of Selkirk, and Jane Plenderleath Sellar, who was a relative of the first Duke of Sutherland. Jane Plenderleath Sellar was the daughter of Patrick Sellar. He wed Leonora Blanche Alleyne, the youngest child of C. T. Alleyne of Clifton and Barbados, on April 17, 1875. She was alternately acknowledged as the author, co-author, or translator of Lang's Color/Rainbow Fairy Books, which he edited (or should have been). He attended the Edinburgh Academy, Loretto School, Selkirk Grammar School, and University of St. Andrews as well as Balliol College in Oxford, where he earned a first-class degree in the final classical schools in 1868. From there, he went on to become a fellow and later an honorary fellow of Merton College. As a journalist, poet, critic, and historian, he quickly established himself as one of the best and most diverse writers of his day.
