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ah, shun the horrid gulf! by scylla fly.

the thousand and one nights – or, as i prefer to call them in the following for purely practical reasons: the arabian nights – as we perceive them three hundred years after antoine galland’s epochal french adaptation bear a distinct arabic imprint. meanwhile, the commonly accepted model for their textual history acknowledges various stages in the conceptualization and effective formation of both the collection’s characteristic frame story and the embedded repertoire. the vast majority of tales in the preserved manuscripts of the nights has been integrated into the collection during two periods of arabic influence, the so-called baghdad and cairo periods (gerhardt 1963: 115–374). these “arabic” stages are preceded by an iranian version, probably dating to pre-islamic times, which in its turn profits from both structural devices and narrative contents originating from indian tradition. considering the eminent position that iran and iranian culture hold in the early stages of the textual history of the arabian nights, surprisingly few details are known concerning the collection’s relation to and its actual position within the iranian cultural context. in the following, i will discuss links between the arabian nights and iranian culture on several levels. in surveying these links, i will treat five major areas: (1) the iranian prototype of the nights; (2) tales of alleged persian origin; (3) persian characters within the tales; (4)persian translations of the arabian nights; and (5) the position of the arabian nights in modern iran

karen blumenthal is the author of steve jobs: the man who thought different, and because of her work, she was a finalist in the 2013 yalsa award for excellence in nonfiction award.

it is significant that blumenthal interviewed several people who knew steve jobs personally because this allowed her to gain access to the industry. she has also stated that due to her work in the 1980s, she was able to get acquainted with the process of making computers and other technology, and was able to witness the progress different companies made and to appreciate apple's contribution to it. finally, this close connection with the industry means that her information is more credible than that of a complete outsider.