Description:
The Merchant and the Genie
When a heartbroken sultan goes mad, a brave woman has a plan to stop him hurting innocent people. For a thousand and one nights, Scheherazade will use the magic of storytelling to bring the sultan back to his senses.
In a story about forgiveness, a merchant angers a genie and faces death unless three strangers’ tales of animal transformation can save him. Will Scheherazade’s plan work? Or will she suffer the same fate as the donkey who took advice from an ox …
Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
When the time comes for Aladdin to become a tailor like his parents, he refuses to learn one end of a needle from the other. He would rather spend his time playing in the streets, which is where the mysterious Ja’far finds him.
After a trip to a secret cave to find a magic lamp, Aladdin’s life goes from rags to riches. But there are some things money (and wishes) can’t buy – like the heart of a princess.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
In a forest in Syria, a poor woodcutter called Ali Baba spots a cloud of dust in the distance. Fearing attack, he hides as forty men on horseback unload stolen treasure. Once they are gone, he helps himself. Ali Baba’s fortunes are looking up – until the robbers return and discover they have been, well, robbed. Now their leader will stop at nothing to find who did it, but it won’t be easy with the clever Morgiana out to stop them.
The Three Princes and the Magic Carpet
Brothers Hussain, Ali and Ahmed are very competitive – and they are all in love with Princess Nourinnihar. To win her heart they travel to distant kingdoms, seeking the rarest gifts, from a magic apple to a flying carpet. Until tragedy forces them to work together. In the end, only one prince can marry the princess. Another goes off to see the world and soothe his heartache. The last follows an enchanted arrow to an invisible palace and a beautiful genie…
The Fisherman and the Genie
A poor fisherman nets a strange pot instead of fish to feed his family. Luckily, there is a genie inside. Unluckily, that genie is furious. Only stories about a regretful father and an ungrateful king convince him not to kill the fisherman.
Instead, the genie takes him to a magic lake with all the fish he could ask for, but which he cannot eat. The reason why lies in another story about another king – and a sorceress who walks through walls.
The Magic Horse
At the festival of the New Year, the King of Persia is given a horse carved from ebony. It has the power to fly riders anywhere they wish to go, and it flies the king’s son all the way to Bengal.
There he meets and falls in love with Princess Ameera. But to marry her, Prince Firouz will have to convince her father by defeating an army, then fool a sultan by pretending to be a doctor. Luckily anything is possible with a magic horse.
Sinbad the Sailor
A porter in Baghdad meets a retired sailor whose travels have made him rich and famous. Though jealous at first, the porter learns through seven stories how hard Sinbad has worked for his fortune. The first story tells of a vanishing island, the second of a valley of snakes; places the porter can hardly imagine, voyages he can scarcely believe. There are storms and shipwrecks, pirates and treasure, giant birds and giant men. Somehow Sinbad survives – as does his spirit of adventure.
Gulnare of the Sea
A battle between sea kings means Gulnare is forbidden to return home. After a storm washes her up on a beach in Persia, she meets the lonely King Hamid. Unable to walk, unwilling to speak and mistrustful of land people, Gulnare still finds herself falling in love.
But their peace and happiness is not matched under the sea. In a story of wrong impressions and magical enchantments, can a child of two worlds and a misguided princess turn enemies into friends?
Prince Camar and Princess Badoura
Prince Camar and Princess Badoura have a lot in common. Both have been locked up by their fathers for refusing to marry. Both have been brought together by two genies to settle a disagreement.
One evening is all it takes for them to fall in love, but by morning they are separated.
To find each other again, one will fake their own death and one will disguise themself as the other. With no magic to help them this time, they must hope that determination will be enough.
Zobeida and the Three Qalandars
A porter in a marketplace, three holy beggars new to Baghdad and a caliph in disguise with his advisor, Jamal. Somehow, they all end up in the home of three beautiful sisters. Though sworn to mind their own business, each has questions. Why do the sisters punish their dogs? How did each holy man lose his left eye?
The answers will take them from a graveyard to a magnetic mountain, through betrayal and shipwreck, with a clever monkey, a jealous neighbour, princes and princesses.