Abstract: Goethe, following Schleicher and Wieland, proposed the concept of world literature in 1827, which is often regarded as the beginning of European awareness of a global pluralistic literary genealogy and an implication of Western-centrism. However, prior to this, Europeans had not only accumulated knowledge about the different national cultures of the world, but also witnessed the first systematic practice of world literature that crossed the cultural divide between East and West. At the beginning of the 18th century, Antoine Galland, an orientalist, and Hanna Diyab, a Maronite from Syria, co-translated and rewrote The Thousand and One Nights. The translation triggered an unprecedented boom of oriental tales in Europe and modern transformation of narrative literature as a result of its concern for universal humanity and national cultural differences during the age of European Enlightenment. Compared with the concept of world literature that is sometimes considered as a problem, the translation of The Thousand and One Nights in Europe shows a richer theoretical connotation and illumination. Still more important, the oriental literary boom it triggered and its influence on European literature lead to the key context that enabled Goethe to propose the concept of world literature. In this sense, The Thousand and One Nights marks the birth of world literature.

Key words: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, World Literature, The Thousand and One Nights