The Arabian Nights is the most important influence on the works of Mark Twain. The Arabian Nights or The Arabian Nights is a collection of 264 stories and tales that have become classics of world literature. In the early 18th century the collection was translated into French and made available to the West (Bloom's). The main plot of the Arabian Nights is the story of Scheherazade. She was the wife of King Shahriyar of India who, after his first wife cheated on him, began marrying a new one every day and having her beheaded the next morning. Scheherazade managed to prolong their marriage by telling the king a collection of Arabian Nights stories. In the thousandth and one night he finally loses the desire to kill her. Many of Scheherazade's stories are familiar around the world, including Aladdin and his magic lamp, Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, Abou Hassan the sleeper, Sinbad the sailor and others. These stories are full of witches, genies, flying carpets, and winged horses, as well as beautiful princesses, dashing desert knights, camel caravans, and heartless kings. Their magic, romance, exotic settings and strange characters have long contributed to the Western perception of the Orient as "mysterious". These stories also had a great influence on the works of Mark Twain who referenced The Arabian Nights on many different occasions. . This influence may be difficult to evaluate, but even greater is the fact that the stories influenced his imagination. Tom Sawyer may lack clear allusions to the Arabian Nights, but their spirit can be found in the novel's many flights of fancy. By the mid-1860s Twain was regularly dropping references to The Thousand and... halfway through the paper... pointing to a much more mature audience who might come to understand his allusions. This is why The Arabian Nights triumphs over all of Twain's other influences. Bloom's Literary Reference Online." Facts On File Online Databases. Np, nd Web. 3 November 2011." Literary Reference Center - operated by EBSCOhost: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments." EBSCO Publishing Service selection page. Np, nd Web. November 5, 2011. Rasmussen, Kent. "The Arabian Nights in the Works of Twain." Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Np, nd Web. 20 November 2011. Sexton, Adam and Hyeondo Park Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1885. Reprint of Huckleberry Finn. Hartford: American Pub Co, 1885. Print.Twain, Mark The Innocents Abroad: American Pub Co, 1869. Print.