It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anne Strange Champs. Today, the thousand and one nights come back to life.

A touchstone of Arab culture. There's some of the oldest and most enchanting stories ever told.

They're also sexually explicit, graphically violent, and surprisingly relevant today.

I'll be a Sherrassad, tell it new each night.

Cherirasat, tell me stories.

This is no ordinary land It once changed the course of a young man's life

A young man who liked this life was more than what he's seen

Now you're only gonna bount a thousand more tales to tell them.

Ali Baba and the 40thees.

Ali Baba and the 40thys.

Ali Baba and the 40thys.

Ali Baba and the 40thys.

Ali Baba and the 40thys. So you know these stories, Alibaba and the 40 Thieves, Sinbad, Aladdin,

flying carpets and magic lamps? The 1,001 Knights are known in the West as the Arabian

Nights, stories that have been told and retold for centuries, censored and banned in the

Middle East, and made it cheesy Disney movies for kids, but have you ever actually read them?

Today, three brilliant writers, Orhan Pammuk, Hanan al-Shake, and Salman Rushdie reclaim the

power of the originals. First, with the backstory, here's Steve Paulson.

One of the great things about the Arabian Nights is they appeal to very different audiences.

For kids, they're full of exotic and magical creatures, but they're also complicated stories

for adults, full of sex and intrigue and even murder. TV producer Shopnam Rezai grew up with these

stories in Iran, and she's never forgotten them.

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