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One Thousand and One Nights #1
One Thousand and One Nights, Volume 1 of 11
Everyone knows about the story of Shahrazad and her wonderful tales of the Arabian nights. For one thousand and one nights, she entertained the mad Sultan with the adventures of Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad, genies, and many other mystical creatures. But what if Shahrazad was actually a boy desperate to save his sister's life? What kind of strange things would he do to make sure that he survives to tell the tale?
This new twist on one of the greatest classical folk tales just might keep you awake for another One Thousand and One Nights.
This new twist on one of the greatest classical folk tales just might keep you awake for another One Thousand and One Nights.
212 pages, Paperback
First published December 28, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 23 reviews
August 24, 2025
Mad Sultan Shahryar has issued a terrible decree: each night a different virgin girl must be made his bride only to be beheaded at dawn. Why does he do it? And why is his latest bride…a boy?!?
In a twist on the Arabian Nights tale of Shahrazad, the storyteller is a beautiful boy who has sacrificed himself to save his sister Dunya. Sehara is a quiet scholar, fearless, learned and humble. A study in contradictions, he uses his ability as a teller of tales to subdue the savagery of the sultan. But underneath his altruism is a burning desire to learn why Shahryar has embarked on this vicious course.
Once the subterfuge is revealed, Sehara is imprisoned to await beheading at dawn. There follows an intense confrontation with another inmate, Sultan Shahryar’s formerly trusted Emir Jafar. From him, Sehara and the reader learn of the origin of Shahryar’s madness...
The men and women are gorgeous to look at for the most part and the setting of ancient lands is exquisitely drawn by Han SeungHee, JinSeok’s collaborator. The story within the main story is enthralling and is a sly commentary on the main plotline. This is a most unusual manhwa in so many ways and well worth reading. Along with the story is an interview with the writer and illustrator as well as some rough sketches for the book, a very useful and interesting addition to the manwha.
In a twist on the Arabian Nights tale of Shahrazad, the storyteller is a beautiful boy who has sacrificed himself to save his sister Dunya. Sehara is a quiet scholar, fearless, learned and humble. A study in contradictions, he uses his ability as a teller of tales to subdue the savagery of the sultan. But underneath his altruism is a burning desire to learn why Shahryar has embarked on this vicious course.
Once the subterfuge is revealed, Sehara is imprisoned to await beheading at dawn. There follows an intense confrontation with another inmate, Sultan Shahryar’s formerly trusted Emir Jafar. From him, Sehara and the reader learn of the origin of Shahryar’s madness...
The men and women are gorgeous to look at for the most part and the setting of ancient lands is exquisitely drawn by Han SeungHee, JinSeok’s collaborator. The story within the main story is enthralling and is a sly commentary on the main plotline. This is a most unusual manhwa in so many ways and well worth reading. Along with the story is an interview with the writer and illustrator as well as some rough sketches for the book, a very useful and interesting addition to the manwha.
May 3, 2019
This is a great first volume! I'm really excited to read the rest of the series
January 25, 2023
I read this series, twice and am currently reading it again. I really love it, the stories are great with their own spin to them. This book made me laugh, cry, angry and happy which more often than not is what I want in my books. I also like having a maleXmale couple that was not erotica, tragic or cliche.
January 2, 2018
I admit to not being as much of a fan of manwha as I am of manga. I collected the series, got all 8 volumes (mostly in swaps) and never read but maybe the first installment. Tired of looking at it, decided to sell Dec 2017.
June 17, 2023
Great art and an interesting, thought provoking story.
February 19, 2023
3.5 rounded down to 3
Kicking off Pride month, we have a nostalgic re-read of a 2000s shounan-ai manhwa.
While nostalgia plays a big role in my desire to pick this story back up after a number of years, I don't think that's what would get me to continue on to volume two.
First of all, Han SeungHee's artwork is absolutely stunning. Her character designs are very distinct, and she leans hard into the genre's convention of having beautiful characters, both in a very objective sense, but also in the painstaking care she puts into the details on even background and side characters. The emotions she's able to convey can be quite subtle at times, though there's still plenty of room for the over-the-top, stylized reactions expected of a comic. And the costumes and the backgrounds as well are often incredibly rich with detail and texture. Just, a really good-looking series all-around.
What about the story, though? As with so many manga and manhwa set-ups, the plot of 'One Thousand and One Nights' sounds very simple: 'Shahrazad and the 1001 Arabian Nights' except with a queer veneer slapped over the top just because it's a good excuse to draw a bunch of impossibly beautiful guys in harem pants.
Admittedly, this first volume plays to that assumption in large part given the set-up of our androgynous protagonist Sehara dressing up as a woman to take his sister's place in the (equally) attractive sultan's harem, and thereby saving her life. There's some obligatory tension around this when the sultan, Shahryar, inevitably figures this out, and Sehara tries to save his own life by telling Shahryar a story connecting back to Shahryar's anger at his wife for the betrayal that kicks off his whole 'I'm going to kill a woman a day because that really hurt my feelings' murder spree.
That being said, though this first volume may feel like a frivilous reboot of the original tale, by the end we can see how writer Jeon JinSeok intends to branch off from the source material, and I remember from later volumes how what could have easily been self-indulgent gender-bent fanfiction becomes a thoughtful exploration of revenge, of redemption, of toxic masculinity. And by not simply rehashing one of the 1001 stories from the original, but taking it in a slightly new direction with a more modern spin on the moral, JinSeok demonstrates how valuable a transformative work can really be.
And, if memory serves, the story really starts to pick up in volume 2 once the authors are able to branch off from the familiar storyline.
Kicking off Pride month, we have a nostalgic re-read of a 2000s shounan-ai manhwa.
While nostalgia plays a big role in my desire to pick this story back up after a number of years, I don't think that's what would get me to continue on to volume two.
First of all, Han SeungHee's artwork is absolutely stunning. Her character designs are very distinct, and she leans hard into the genre's convention of having beautiful characters, both in a very objective sense, but also in the painstaking care she puts into the details on even background and side characters. The emotions she's able to convey can be quite subtle at times, though there's still plenty of room for the over-the-top, stylized reactions expected of a comic. And the costumes and the backgrounds as well are often incredibly rich with detail and texture. Just, a really good-looking series all-around.
What about the story, though? As with so many manga and manhwa set-ups, the plot of 'One Thousand and One Nights' sounds very simple: 'Shahrazad and the 1001 Arabian Nights' except with a queer veneer slapped over the top just because it's a good excuse to draw a bunch of impossibly beautiful guys in harem pants.
Admittedly, this first volume plays to that assumption in large part given the set-up of our androgynous protagonist Sehara dressing up as a woman to take his sister's place in the (equally) attractive sultan's harem, and thereby saving her life. There's some obligatory tension around this when the sultan, Shahryar, inevitably figures this out, and Sehara tries to save his own life by telling Shahryar a story connecting back to Shahryar's anger at his wife for the betrayal that kicks off his whole 'I'm going to kill a woman a day because that really hurt my feelings' murder spree.
That being said, though this first volume may feel like a frivilous reboot of the original tale, by the end we can see how writer Jeon JinSeok intends to branch off from the source material, and I remember from later volumes how what could have easily been self-indulgent gender-bent fanfiction becomes a thoughtful exploration of revenge, of redemption, of toxic masculinity. And by not simply rehashing one of the 1001 stories from the original, but taking it in a slightly new direction with a more modern spin on the moral, JinSeok demonstrates how valuable a transformative work can really be.
And, if memory serves, the story really starts to pick up in volume 2 once the authors are able to branch off from the familiar storyline.
March 7, 2016
A great start to a very interesting series.
Having read both a version of 1001 nights before, and this series itself, I was interested to really settle in and give this a proper read. Going the second time around without just scanning it I am pleased to find that it is just as good, if not even better than I remember.
Sehara has gone into the Sultan's harem to save his sister Dunya from the fate of being beheaded in after a night with the Sultan. Unlike the traditional Sherazade this puts Sehara at even more of a disadvantage because the Sultan is angered and starts off by throwing him in prison and threatening to behead him before the night goes any further. This puts the stakes just a bit higher and makes it interesting when he does get to start telling his stories.
The start has its bumps and faults but I enjoyed it and am jumping right into the rest!
Having read both a version of 1001 nights before, and this series itself, I was interested to really settle in and give this a proper read. Going the second time around without just scanning it I am pleased to find that it is just as good, if not even better than I remember.
Sehara has gone into the Sultan's harem to save his sister Dunya from the fate of being beheaded in after a night with the Sultan. Unlike the traditional Sherazade this puts Sehara at even more of a disadvantage because the Sultan is angered and starts off by throwing him in prison and threatening to behead him before the night goes any further. This puts the stakes just a bit higher and makes it interesting when he does get to start telling his stories.
The start has its bumps and faults but I enjoyed it and am jumping right into the rest!
August 12, 2011
Firstly, the art is stunning (lots of pretty boys) i particularly loved how the artist drew their eyes, very lovely. The story is an interesting twist on the classic and the relationship between the sultan and sehara is interesting, very angst driven it'll keep any hopeless romantic drawn in (i certainly was for awhile). The sultans character was very interesting as well, not original by any means but I liked him, I always enjoy the darker bits of the human mind.
However, it didn't really keep my interest enough to continue reading. I stopped after the 7th volume. It's worth a shot though, if you're thinking about reading it you should.
However, it didn't really keep my interest enough to continue reading. I stopped after the 7th volume. It's worth a shot though, if you're thinking about reading it you should.
Read
October 30, 2013"One Thousand and One Nights" tells of the real and the supernatural, love and marriage, power and punishment, wealth and poverty, and the endless trials and uncertainties of fate. Lebanese writer Hanan al-Shaykh has selected nineteen of these stories, retold them in modern English, and knitted them together into an utterly intoxicating collection. The stories in this collection have a little something for everyone. This is one of the most important works of Arabic literature, but the themes and topics that are told in these stories could resonate with all students. Issues of love, power, and wealth are universal themes that everyone can relate to.
July 30, 2012
From reading the first volume of this manhwa series, I see the making of a beautiful friendship with this series and myself. It has all my essentials: gorgeous artwork, an interesting storyline twist, and it plays around with multiple genres (fantasy, historical, action, shoujo, and light shounen-ai). It also creates engaging characters who are human in their nature and emotions. There is tragedy behind the sultan's insanity and compassion for Sehara situation in trying to protect his sister. I like where this is going and I look foward to seeing new volumes of this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2013
Well, there were some historical/religious errors. For one, it is forbidden in Islamic culture/religion to marry your blood sibling. Second, brothers do NOT have the right to behead their sisters if they're not virgins. That was a pre-islamic tradition and was eradicated with the establishment of an Islamic state. Other than that, I found myself enjoying this twist on the original tales. The scene where the Sultan discovered where his queen went at nights? Priceless! But I totally understand his rage. That woman was such a slut.
June 4, 2012
without any exaggeration, it is the best novel that I read. you submerge into the sea of stories. It likes a labyrinth or maze, you can not find and as a reader I don't want to find the exit. It is my favorite book. Besides, I found many other Iranian ancient literature have been written in this style, like Samak Ayyar or Kelileh et Damneh even Shahnameh and so on. As I know some European writer tried to follow this style like Marcel Proust.
March 9, 2013
This is a very beautiful story, and I'm glad to have read it. The twist of Sehara being a man was amusing, but it made the manga more interesting, and all the pieces fit rightly in. And instead of using the original stories from the Arabian Nights, the authors used stories from other cultures in a fitting and instructive manner. I learned more from reading this manga than I have had reading history books.
June 1, 2011
Definitely worth checking out this series if you like angst, intrigue, and pretty boys with swords. I love manhwa for its gorgeous art and somewhat different take on things. I think I almost prefer shonen ai with a really good (read: angsty) storyline over full on yaoi. At least on certain days. :)
February 6, 2016
Pretty good story about a king who sleeps with a different woman each night and then beheads the woman. This is the story of a brother named Shahrazad who takes his sister's place in order to save his sister. The king finds out he is a man and sentences him to die. In order to survive the brother tells the king stories.
September 26, 2010
This is the collection of stories that was told each night to the king so the storyteller doesn't get beheaded...but there is a difference: the girl who tells the stories is really a boy pretending to be a girlto save his sister....it was good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2012
1st. read: 3/15/06
November 9, 2010
This is just the barest beginnings of the overall story involving the sultan and the gender-swapped storyteller. In this volume, Sehara tells the story of Turandot.
February 19, 2011
Nice twist on the classic. Might be able to love this one.
July 28, 2011
Sublime ! Des dessins magnifiques, une version originale des mille et une nuits. La suite viteeee !
October 11, 2013
This manhwa is epic!
February 26, 2014
very odd and entertaining. if you are a tim powers fan, you will recognize his source material
Displaying 1 - 22 of 23 reviews