Middle East
Stories from Middle Eastern and Arabian traditions.
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
Hassan of Basra and the Bird Maiden
Hassan of Basra and the Bird Maiden: In the city of Basra, there lived a young merchant named Hassan ibn Ibrahim, known throughout the marketplace for his
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Barber’s Tale of His Sixth Brother
Shakashik the starving beggar of Baghdad accepts an imaginary feast from a Barmecide nobleman, plays through the cruel charade with patience, and wins both real food and a place in the great house - the Arabian Nights tale that gave English the word 'Barmecide.'
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
Scheherazade and the Sultan
Scheherazade and the Sultan: In the great city of Baghdad, there lived a Sultan named Shahriar who had been betrayed by his first wife. In his grief and rage
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Enchanted Garden of Iram
The Enchanted Garden of Iram: On the edge of the great desert that stretches eastward from Damascus, there lived a poor merchant named Zaid. He had once been
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Seven Voyages of Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage
Sinbad outfits his own ship and sails to an uninhabited isle where his crew breaks the egg of the roc. The parent birds destroy the ship with boulders. Shipwrecked alone, Sinbad meets the Old Man of the Sea and escapes only by patient cunning; in the City of Apes he refills his fortune with coconuts and returns to Baghdad.
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Enchanted Horse and the Princess of Bengal: Love Across the Skies
The Galland-Lang version of the Arabian Nights tale of the ebony horse (ATU 575): Prince Firuz Shah of Persia rescues the Princess of Bengal in a love story that crosses the widest geography in world folklore.
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad: Escape from the Cannibals
The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad: Escape from the Cannibals: I have told you of my three great voyages, my friends, but the fourth was perhaps the most terrible and
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Ebony Horse: A Tale of Love and Deception
The Ebony Horse, the canonical Arabian Nights tale of al-Faras al-Abnus (Nights 357-371), retold as a study of love and deception: a Persian prince, the princess of Sanaa, an old Indian sage who lies to steal her, a Kashmiri king who calls coercion love, and a feigned madness that wins her freedom back.
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The City of Brass: A Lesson in the Vanity of Power
The City of Brass: A Lesson in the Vanity of Power: In the great halls of Damascus, Caliph Muawiyah sat upon his throne, disturbed by troubling dreams. joins a
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Enchanted Horse
The Enchanted Horse, or Ebony Horse, from the Thousand and One Nights - a Persian prince masters a flying mechanical horse, wins a princess, and outwits the inventor who steals her away.
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Prince and the Sphinx
The Prince and the Sphinx: In ancient Egypt, when the pyramids were still bright with polished limestone and reflected the sun like beacons to the gods, there
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
Joha and the Donkey
The famous tale of Joha, his son and their donkey. On the road to market, every passer-by criticises how they use the animal, and Joha keeps changing to please each new critic until he has pleased no one and lost the donkey: the classic story of why you cannot satisfy everyone.