Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

The first English translation of this spectacular collection of medieval Arab fantasy stories

A great cache of ancient, magical stories in the same tradition as The Arabian Nights, Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange is an extraordinary find. Dating from at least a millennium ago, these are the earliest-known Arabic short stories, which survived 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. Composed to fascinate their original audiences, these charming, surreal, baffling, and beautiful stories are indeed both marvelous and strange.

MALCOLM C. LYONS is the translator of the Penguin Classics edition of the complete Arabian Nights. He is one of the world’s leading experts on classical Arabic literature.

ROBERT IRWIN is a historian and the author of many books, including For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, and (as editor) The Penguin Anthology of Classical Arabian Literature.