What are the Arabian Nights?
This famous story is set in the court in Baghdad, where a king was said to have killed his wives, one after the other, the day after he married them. One of these wives, called Scheherazade, told the king such fascinating stories that he never killed her.
The setting for this story was the court of the caliph of the Abbasid Empire, which dominated the Islamic world from AD750 to 1258. The Abbasids traced their ancestry back to the uncle of the prophet Mohammed. Haroun al-Rashid was the most famous caliph. As well as being a great general and politician, Haroun al-Rashid encouraged the development of arts and learning in Baghdad.
What is the Kaaba?
The Kaaba is the sacred shrine at the centre of Mecca. It is a cube-shaped building, and in its eastern corner is embedded the Black Stone. According to Islamic belief, this was given to Abraham by the archangel Gabriel. All Muslims must face the Kaaba when they pray, and it is the centre of the religious pilgrimage to Mecca. Pilgrims must move around it seven times while praying and reciting from the Koran, before finally touching or kissing the Black Stone.
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