Q 01/05

What is the Arabic title of the collection known in English as the Arabian Nights?

A) Kitab al-Aghani

B) Alf Laylah wa-Laylah

C) Kalila wa-Dimna

D) Maqamat al-Hariri

Answer · why

B) Alf Laylah wa-Laylah

Alf Laylah wa-Laylah means 'a thousand nights and a night'; the oldest surviving scrap, a ninth-century fragment, calls the book only the tale of 'a t...

Q 02/05

Which ruler is told a story every night by his wife in the frame tale?

A) Harun al-Rashid

B) Shahryar

C) Shahzaman

D) Baybars

Answer · why

B) Shahryar

Shahryar, betrayed by his first queen, resolved never to be deceived again: he married a new bride each day and had her executed the next morning, unt...

Q 03/05

In the Nights' frame tale, Scheherazade is the daughter of which court official?

A) The chamberlain

B) The chief judge

C) The vizier

D) The royal astrologer

Answer · why

C) The vizier

The vizier had the grim duty of finding the king's brides, and he tried to talk his daughter out of volunteering by telling her a cautionary fable abo...

Q 04/05

What is the name of Scheherazade's younger sister, who asks for a story on the wedding night?

A) Morgiana

B) Badroulbadour

C) Zumurrud

D) Dunyazad

Answer · why

D) Dunyazad

Dunyazad's request is part of the plan: Scheherazade had told her sister beforehand to ask for a tale, so that the king, listening in, would let her l...

Q 05/05

In the Nights' frame tale, Scheherazade is said to have collected a thousand what?

A) Riddles

B) Songs

C) Books

D) Jewels

Answer · why

C) Books

Books of histories of past peoples and kings: she had studied the sciences too and knew the poets' verses by heart, so her memory was stocked with sto...