Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange: A Medieval Arab Fantasy Collection

This anthology of 18 medieval tales gathered over centuries resembles The Arabian Nights in unmistakable ways, featuring the magical adventures of kings, beggars, thieves, sailors, genies, and flying horses, all spawned with vivid imagination. Based on a manuscript first discovered in Istanbul in 1933, the tales here differ from Nights in genre and style. Each stands alone, but unlike those told by Shahrazad, these stories are not framed within other tales. The narrative is less elaborate—even convoluted and muddled sometimes—than in Nights. (In the discovered manuscript, the stories were incomplete in places.) However, the fluent translation by Lyons (Arabic, Cambridge Univ.), a leading expert on classical Arabic literature, goes a long way in capturing the essence of the original tales, making them come alive. The engaging introduction by Arabist Robert Irwin (The Arabian Nights: A Companion) is a must-read, providing an indispensable road map to cultural and literary context.