A collection of Arabian tales from about 1,000 years ago probably from Constantinople (now Istanbul), former capital of the Byzantine Empire. They are strange by modern standards, are generally unpolished, and vary in quality, with a family resemblance to the Tales of the Thousand and One Nights and other ancient Arabic collections, some of these tales in common with those. The empire had experienced a golden age, becoming the largest and wealthiest city of Europe, but was coming into greater conflict with the Arab empire. The tales are not about the historical events of the time.

The authors of the tales liked magic, caves, handsome young men who could slay thousands single-handed, precious gems, virgins, the rising sun, the full moon, good food and drink, slaves, dirty tricks, fate, Muhammad, and God.

You might give this three stars only, unless you have a particular interest in Arab literature or history. ( )

This book is so lovely that I might have bought it no matter what it was about. But then -- it's the first English translation of what is the earliest known collection of Arabic stories, at least a thousand years old, some of which made their way into The Arabian Nights, but many never read in English before.

I bought this book pretty early in my djinn obsession, but I'm very glad that I waited to read it. Even as I was reading these stories, and enjoying (most of) them, I kept thinking that I probably would not have been ready to deal with these a year ago. Stories so old are just different, no matter what culture they're from, and had I not some familiarity with this form, particularly from Al-Shaykh's One Thousand and One Nights retelling, I think I would have been at a loss. You know, with the horrific racism, and the "oh, well, he raped her, but he married her!" and "well, she cheated on me, so I cut off her nose." That stuff.

So, knowing what to expect, I found this peek into the history of storytelling delightful and fantastic. There was only one story that was all prophecies and god-bragging and this tribe shall defeat that tribe until this tribe is defeated by that tribe that was a slog all the way through and never had a moment of magic. It was work, of course, to read, but I felt duly rewarded for the work. ( )