Antoine Galland first translated into french four volume of stories he possessed from Syria. The original title of the volumes was "Alf Layla wa Layla" or "A thousand Nights and a Night". When translated into french it was known as "Les mille et une nuits". In his "translation" of the tales, Galland is known to have altered and embellished the stories as he saw fit, adding in what are now known as the "Orphan Tales" to the works. Such tales include "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad."

The tales of the Thousand and One Nights began to appear in England as early as 1706, though it is likely some had copies of the french version of the tales. It was renamed as" Arabian Nights' Entertainments" or sometimes "The Thousand and One Nights." Hundreds of editions of the stories circled Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries, all based on Galland's original works.