The Three Apples

E86496

The Three Apples is a murder-mystery tale from the medieval Arabic collection One Thousand and One Nights, notable for its early use of detective-story elements and intricate storytelling.

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Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Arabic literature work
detective story
frame tale episode
murder mystery
short story
approximateDateOfComposition medieval period
associatedWith Islamic Golden Age
surface form: Islamic Golden Age literature

medieval Arabic narrative tradition
containsTheme abuse of power and mercy
fate and coincidence
jealousy and misunderstanding
justice
truth and false confession
countryOfOrigin Abbasid Caliphate
featuresCharacter Harun al-Rashid
Ja'far ibn Yahya
the Caliph's slave
the fisher
the murdered woman
the woman's husband
genre crime fiction
detective fiction
frame narrative
murder mystery
hasForm prose narrative
hasInfluenceOn later detective fiction scholarship
studies of the origins of the mystery genre
literarySignificance early example of detective-story elements in world literature
noted for intricate storytelling structure
one of the earliest known murder mysteries
narrativeDevice embedded story within a frame narrative
investigation of a crime
multiple confessions
twist ending
use of clues and red herrings
originalLanguage Arabic
partOf Arabian Nights NERFINISHED
One Thousand and One Nights NERFINISHED
plotElement Caliph orders vizier to find the murderer
deadline for solving the crime under threat of execution
discovery of a locked chest containing a dismembered body
final revelation of the true circumstances of the murder
misidentification of the killer
search for rare apples as key evidence
settingPeriod Abbasid Caliphate
surface form: Abbasid era
structure story told by Scheherazade to King Shahryar
titleInEnglish The Three Apples self-link

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

The Arabian Nights hasPart The Three Apples
The Three Apples titleInEnglish The Three Apples self-link