'The Thousand and One Nights' was reborn into an alien environment in 1704, its signs being received in a different way from their original meanings. Works of literature change as people and cultures who read them change.

'The Thousand and One Nights' was secular literature, not approved by the cultured literary classes as literature at all. This study explores the 'Nights' with reference to this view of literature, for the 'Nights' has a history noted by change.