[jveritas]

Are you sure?

[muawiyah]

The core stories probably pre-date Persian civilization, but the Sinbad portion definitely originates in the Easternmost parts of the Moslem world since Sinbad is clearly based on Admiral He, the Moslem Chinese fellow who headed up the Ming Treasure Fleet.

The stories also have a clear-cut caste emphasis and that puts them within the realm of Greater India.

Everyone is pretty sure the Arabs had nothing to do with putting the collection together since they didn't even have a well-known written language until the 8th century.

Having read all of the 1001 (that I could get my hands on) and also having read Bandits of the Marsh, I'd like to suggest that some pretty purely traditional Chinese bandit stories got worked into the mix, and a long time ago too!

Abraham's kinsman, Lot, undoubtedly knew some of the tales.