The lecture traces the journey of The Arabian Nights from its medieval Arabic formation as a fluid body of oral and written narratives to its transformation through European translation, especially Antoine Galland’s 1704 Les Mille et Une Nuits, which introduced such now-famous tales as “Aladdin” and “Ali Baba,” narratives for which no surviving Arabic originals are known. Rooted in Indian, Persian, and Arabic storytelling traditions, The Arabian Nights brings together folklore, fable, adventure, and romance within a narrative structure that continually renews itself.

Particular attention will be given to the work’s shifting literary status across cultures. The talk considers how a collection once placed at the margins of elite literary culture in the premodern Arab world came to inspire European Romanticism, Gothic fiction, and modern fantasy, shaping writers as varied as Voltaire, Goethe, Poe, Borges, and Rushdie. Drawing on recent scholarship and Dr. Gündüz’s own teaching experience, the seminar reflects on translation, adaptation, and literary prestige, and asks how a work may be diminished in one cultural setting and elevated in another.