Editing Detective fiction (section)

===Early Arabic===
''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' contains several of the earliest detective stories, anticipating modern detective fiction.<ref name="Gerhardi">{{cite book |last1=Gerhardi |first1=Mia I. |title=The Art of Story-Telling |date=1963 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill Archive]] |pages=169–170 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f88UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA169}}</ref> The oldest known example of a detective story was "[[The Three Apples]]", one of the tales narrated by [[Scheherazade]] in the ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' (''Arabian Nights''). In this story, a fisherman discovers a heavy, locked chest along the [[Tigris]] river, which he then sells to the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid Caliph]], [[Harun al-Rashid]]. When Harun breaks open the chest, he discovers the body of a young woman who has been cut into pieces. Harun then orders his [[vizier]], [[Ja'far ibn Yahya]], to solve the crime and to find the murderer within three days, or be executed if he fails in his assignment.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|pages=86–91}}</ref> [[Suspense]] is generated through multiple [[plot twist]]s that occur as the story progresses.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|pages=93, 95, 97}}</ref> With these characteristics this may be considered an [[archetype]] for detective fiction.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|page=91}}</ref> It anticipates the use of [[reverse chronology]] in modern detective fiction, where the story begins with a crime before presenting a gradual reconstruction of the past.<ref name="Gerhardi"/>

The main difference between Ja'far ("The Three Apples") and later fictional detectives, such as [[Sherlock Holmes]] and [[Hercule Poirot]], is that Ja'far has no desire to solve the case. The [[whodunit]] mystery is solved when the murderer himself confesses his crime.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|pages=91–92}}</ref> This in turn leads to another assignment in which Ja'far has to find the culprit who instigated the murder within three days or else be executed. Ja'far again fails to find the culprit before the deadline, but owing to chance, he discovers a key item. In the end, he manages to solve the case through reasoning in order to prevent his own execution.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|pages=96–97}}</ref>

On the other hand, two other ''Arabian Nights'' stories, "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja", contain two of the earliest [[fictional detectives]], who uncover clues and present evidence to catch or convict a criminal known to the audience, with the story unfolding in normal chronology and the criminal already known to the audience. The latter involves a [[Climax (narrative)|climax]] where the titular detective protagonist Ali Khwaja presents evidence from [[expert witness]]es in a court.<ref name="Gerhardi"/>