Antoine Galland

The Arabian Nights is now considered as one of the masterpieces of world literature. Many of you must have read the story of Aladdin or Ali Baba in your childhood. The world of the Arabian Nights has expanded nowadays into animation films and games. It is not such a long time ago that the Arabian Nights came to be known throughout the world. This story was first introduced to Europe exactly three hundred years ago.

Many mysteries abound around the Arabian Nights. Although the beautiful princess, Scheherazade, keeps narrating tales for a thousand and one nights, its earliest versions are believed to have been not that long. In the first section of this special exhibition, we unlock the mystery of its naissance.

Have you ever been aware of the difference between the reality and the general image of the Islamic Middle East? The second section of the exhibition looks into the gap between the cultural reality of the Islamic Middle East and its stereotypes through exhibits of objects surrounding nomadic life, women's clothing, belly dance, musical instruments, Arabic alphabet and so forth.

The fantasy of the Arabian Nights continues to be reproduced in various media. In the third section of the exhibition, we focus on the potential of the Arabian Nights as a source of fantastic imagination, which expands and transforms through the medium of art work, theater, movie, comics, and games. A rare chance to view a series of lithographs by Marc Chagall and a 3DCG animation jointly produced by the cartoonist, Monkey Punch, and the Museum.