Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: Solomon the Wise King Story 1: The Fisherman and the Genie Chapter 1: Master of Jinn Story 2: The City of Brass Chapter 2: Riding the Wind: The Flying Carpet I Story 3: Prince Ahmed and Fairy Peri Banou Chapter 3: A Tapestry of Great Price: The Flying Carpet II Part II: Dark Arts; Strange Gods Story 4: The Prince of the Black Islands Chapter 4: The Worst Witch Chapter 5: Egyptian Attitudes Story 5: Hasan of Basra Chapter 6: Magians and Dervishes Story 6: A Fortune Regained Chapter 7: Dream Knowledge Part III: Active Goods Chapter 8: ‘Everything You Desire to Know about the East . . .’ Story 7: The Greek King and Doctor Douban Chapter 9: The Thing-World of the Arabian Nights Story 8: Abu Mohammed the Lazy Chapter 10: The Word of the Talisman Story 9: Marouf the Cobbler Chapter 11: The Voice of the Toy Chapter 12: Money Talks Part IV: Oriental Masquerades Chapter 13: Magnificent Moustaches: Hamilton’s Fooling, Voltaire’s Impersonations Story 10: Rosebud and Uns al-Wujud the Darling Boy Story 11: The Jinniya and the Egyptian Prince Chapter 14: ‘Symbols of Wonder’: William Beckford’s Arabesque Chapter 15: Oriental Masquerade: Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan Part V: Flights of Reason Story 12: Camar al-Zaman and Princess Badoura Chapter 16: Thought Experiments: Flight before Flight Chapter 17: Why Aladdin? Chapter 18: Machine Dreams Story 13: The Ebony Horse Chapter 19: The Shadows of Lotte Reiniger Story 14: Aladdin of the Beautiful Moles Chapter 20: The Couch: A Case History Story 15: Prince Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus Conclusion: ‘All the story of the night told over . . .’ Glossary Abbreviations The Stories Notes Bibliography Index