'Here am I, ready to obey you, your slave And The slave of all those who hold the lamp in their hands'To stay the hand of her husband and postpone her execution, The vizier's daughter Shahrazad must tell stories. Her tales of adventure, love, riches and wonder, Of jinns, sultans, princes and slave girls are some of the richest in literature, known throughout the world, and influencing writers from Dickens to Rushdie and Joyce to Poe. Fantastical and enchanting, this essential one-volume edition of the finest and most famous of the 1,001 Nights includes Aladdin and his lamp, Ali Baba and his Forty Thieves And The journeys of Sinbad. Taken from the 'the most ambitious and thorough translation into English of the Arabian Nights since the age of Queen Victoria' (Guardian), these tales are accompanied by an introduction by Robert Irwin on the reception and influences of the Nights throughout their history. This edition also includes maps, a glossary and suggested further reading.Translated by MALCOLM C. LYONS and URSULA LYONS with an introduction and notes by ROBERT IRWIN

Malcolm C. Lyons has been Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University, is a life Fellow of Pembroke College and a specialist in classical Arabic literature.

Ursula Lyons, formerly an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Oriential Studies at Cambridge University and, since 1976, an Emeritus Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, specializes in modern Arabic literature.

Robert Irwin is a novelist, publisher, Middle Eastern Editor of the TLS and author of The Arabian Nights: A Companion, among many other books.