Arabian Literature

Gertrude Bell was leaning in 100 years before Sheryl Sandberg. One of the great woman adventurers of the 20th century, she turned her back on Victorian society to study at Oxford and travel the world and became the chief architect of British policy in the Middle East after World War I. Mountaineer, archaeologist, Arabist, writer, poet, linguist, and spy, she dedicated her life to championing the Arab cause and was instrumental in drawing the borders that define today's Middle East.

The original story of Aladdin is a Persian folk tale. It concerns an impoverished young ne'er-do-well named Aladdin who is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb. The sorcerer persuades young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Fortunately, Aladdin retained a magic ring lent to him by the sorcerer. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring, and a jinni appears, who takes him home to his mother.

These tales are told with a rare beauty, rhyme, and rhythm. Richard Burton's translation catches the epic beauty in his unique style. It takes time to get used to Burton's prose poetry, but once you do, the reward is as deep as Shaharazad's story. As a storyteller, it was a joy to narrate these tales and bring the music of the work to life.

Laura Kasinof studied Arabic in college and moved to Yemen a few years later - after a friend at a late-night party in Washington, DC, recommended the country as a good place to work as a freelance journalist. When she first moved to Sanaa in 2009, she was the only American reporter based in the country. She quickly fell in love with Yemen’s people and culture, in addition to finding herself the star of a local TV soap opera.

A terrorist mastermind will start World War III...unless a US submarine crew and a crack team of Navy SEALs can stop him first.

The beautiful Sheherazade, threatened with death, manages to postpone the fatal day by telling one marvellous story every night. The stories themselves are folk tales, fairy tales and poems collected over many centuries, from ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Mesopotamian, Indian, and Egyptian folklore and literature. This makes The Arabian Nights a priceless treasure, as it takes us to the very roots of our culture in a delightful and passionate way...

Toby Stephens takes us back to the world of cunning, adventure, mishap, and fun. Sheherezade, night after night, weaves her tales and Aladdin and his Magic Lamp, Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and other tales come alive. The unforgettable music of Rimsky-Korsakov sets the scene perfectly. A delightful treat for young listeners.

In twelfth century, Persia, clever and dreamy Shaherazade stumbles on the Malik’s beloved wife entwined with a lover in a sun-dappled courtyard. When Shaherazade recounts her first tale, the story of this infidelity, to the Malik, she sets the Seljuk Empire on fire. Enraged at his wife’s betrayal, the once-gentle Malik beheads her. But when that killing does not quench his anger, the Malik begins to marry and behead a new bride each night. Furious at the murders, his province seethes on rebellion’s edge.

Indelbed is a lonely kid living in a crumbling mansion in the super-dense, super-chaotic third-world capital of Bangladesh. His father, Dr. Kaikobad, is the black sheep of their clan. A drunken loutish widower, he refuses to allow Indelbed go to school, and the only thing Indelbed knows about his mother is the official cause of her early demise: "Death by Indelbed". But when Dr. Kaikobad falls into a supernatural coma, Indelbed and his older cousin, the wise-cracking slacker Rais, learn that Indelbed's dad was in fact a magician - and a trusted emissary to the djinn world.

Ali Baba and his elder brother Cassim are the sons of a merchant. After the death of their father, the greedy Cassim marries a wealthy woman and becomes well-to-do, building on their father's business - but Ali Baba marries a poor woman and settles into the trade of a woodcutter. One day Ali Baba is at work collecting and cutting firewood in the forest, and he happens to overhear a group of forty thieves visiting their treasure store. The treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic.

The teacher, Patrick Healy, traveled around the world, talked with people in different places, and collected around half a thousand myths, legends and folktales and their several alternative versions. His opinion and comments (directly or indirectly) are inevitable.

This is the first volume of his work. Patrick grouped together 33 famous Arabian children's stories and myths with his words. He retold the stories with his own opinion and approach to them. Patrick is an Australian writer who has an abiding interest in the folklore of different cultures. He has lived and worked in Hong Kong for over 25 years as a high school teacher. Patrick has traveled extensively throughout Asia and speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin fluently.

Imani is a magic-wielding warrior sworn to protect her land from the monsters that roam the desert. But an even worse enemy now threatens the Sahir. As the powerful Harrowlanders march south with their greatest weapon—spice magic—Imani knows it’s only a matter of time before their invasion of her land begins . . . and it will be a losing battle for her people. But Imani also knows that one way to fight magic is with monsters. If she can restore Qayn’s stolen powers, together they can summon a supernatural army to defend the Sahir from the Harrowlanders.

Dating from at least a millennium ago, these are the earliest known Arabic short stories, surviving in a single, ragged manuscript in a library in Istanbul. Some found their way into The Arabian Nights, but most have never been read in English before. Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange has monsters, lost princes, jewels beyond price, a princess turned into a gazelle, sword-wielding statues and shocking reversals of fortune.

Pat Walsh is a highly decorated infantry officer living life between the lines until the day he picks the wrong side in a Pentagon political battle. When an old Army buddy recruits Pat to work as an asset for the CIA, he reluctantly agrees, and his adventure begins. Caught up in the shadowy world of Middle East Arms dealing as a CIA contracted arms dealer, he stumbles upon a conspiracy that is re-shaping the region and threatens to draw the world into a global conflict. Now that he knows the secret, his life is on the line. 

When a bomb goes off in a crowded square, Pat Walsh finds himself on the run looking to clear his name. Framed by an unknown enemy, Pat takes to the high seas, begins unraveling the mystery, and works to discover the enemy lurking in the shadows. This takes Pat into the heart of the conflict in Syria and pits him against the most unlikely alliance of villains. With only the help of an arms dealer and his special-forces training, Pat unleashes his wrath. This military thriller takes the listener on an action-packed adventure spanning three continents.

Martyn Green reads a selection of stories from The Arabian Nights including "Aladdin", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", "The Flying Horse", and "The Speaking Bird".

This delightfully narrated classic is a story within a story. In an attempt to postpone execution, the king's new bride spends one thousand and one nights enchanting him with story after story of true love, tragedy, sorcerers, and jinns.

"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", "Aladdin", "Sinbad the Sailor": These are just some of the strange and amazing stories that clever Scheherazade tells to captivate her husband, King Shahryar…and to save her own life. Each one is more fantastic than the last, filled with demons and dervishes, caliphs and genies, men transformed into dogs and monsters with eyes that glow. Like the king, children will find themselves enchanted by every tale.

After spending all the wealth left to him by his father, Sinbad goes to sea to repair his fortune. He sets ashore on what appears to be an island, but this island proves to be a gigantic sleeping whale on which trees have taken root ever since the world was young. Awakened by a fire kindled by the sailors, the whale dives into the depths, the ship departs without Sinbad, and Sinbad is saved by the grace of Allah.

Every dream has a Dream Master to control it. But Cy has such a vivid imagination that he has met his Dream Master and can travel with him through Time and Space to actually live his dreams. But what would happen if a character from Cy's dream decided to come and live in his Time and Space? Cy's about to find out. He's accidentally conjured up the Princess Shahr-Azad from Ancient Arabia - creator of the 1001 tales of Arabian Nights.