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Potential for double credit: There are fascinating parallels between the story of Sharazad and the story of the Biblical  Esther . Both are clever, beautiful women who live in the courts of oriental despots and must use their wits to save the lives of others. Do a careful, detailed compare/contrast of these two heroines, using plenty of specific details from both stories to support your ideas. If you do this one very well, it is potentially worth double credit; be sure to mention that on your essay. Good luck. 

Potential for double credit: If you are very ambitious, you might want to read or reread "Gawain and the Green Knight," which is in your textbook or online at  Sir Gawain , and compare it to "The Story of the Merchant and the Demon" in the  Nights . Both are tales of keeping faith to meet with a magical fellow on New Year's Day who intends to cut off one's head. If you choose this one, I'll leave you to pose your own question and figure out how to answer it in less than a book. If you do this one very well, it is potentially worth double credit; be sure to mention that on your essay. Good luck. 

Potential for double credit: Read  Crescent: a novel  by Diana Abu-Jaber (Norton, 2003). It is a delightful double tale, partly about Iraqi exiles who work and eat at Nadia's Cafe in West Los Angeles--their food, their loves and their longing for their homeland--and partly a magical tale in the spirit of the  Arabian Nights, but ending up in Hollywood. After enjoying the book (I loved it!), explain in some detail why you think the author included the magical  Arabian Nights tale along with the more realistic story of Nadia's Cafe in West Los Angeles. What is she drawing from the  Nights and how does she use it to illuminate what she calls at times the "Arab soul?" Use plenty of specific examples, both from  Crescent  and from the  Nights  to support your ideas. If you do this one very well, it is potentially worth double credit; be sure to mention that on your essay. Good luck. 

Potential for double credit. According to D. L. Ashliman, "One of India's most influential contributions to world literature, the Panchatantra ... consists of five books of animal fables and magic tales (some 87 stories in all) that were compiled, in their current form, between the third and fifth centuries AD. It is believed that even then the stories were already ancient. The tales' self-proclaimed purpose is to educate the sons of royalty." Read a few of these stories and compare them to stories in the  Nights  that are told to heal a mad king. Here is a link to a selection from the  Panchatantra . If you do this one very well, it is potentially worth double credit; be sure to mention that on your essay. Good luck. 

Potential for double credit: Robert Irwin has written a fascinating riff on the  Arabian Nights  called  The Arabian Nightmare . It tells of a 12th c. English scholar-wanderer who ends up in Cairo under the influence of The Father of Cats who is a corrupt teacher of dreams and sleep. There are many interwoven stories and wonders, including of course talking apes and virgins locked in enclosed gardens. If this interests you, read Irwin's book (I don't know if it is in print, but I got a used copy easily from Amazon Marketplace) after reading the selections from the assigned sections of the  Nights . Then, compare the two sets of stories in some interesting way. If you do this one very well, it is potentially worth double credit; be sure to mention that on your essay. Good luck.