Abu Mohammed Lazybones and Other Court Tales

Inside this edition

Every LitLab edition is illustrated from the text itself — the world of the book mapped, its people drawn, its scenes staged. 41 plates are open to everyone in this book; here are 8 of them.

• Baghdad, Bassorah and the Hidden RouteA story-world master map for the court tales.
• Bassorah Judgment HousesBassorah as court, street and threshold.
• Court, Wit and ReversalCharacter connections across the court anecdotes.
• Characters 1Collective character reference sheet: Harun al-Rashid; Ja'afar the Barmecide; Ali the Persian; The Kurd.
• Characters 2Collective character reference sheet: The Kazi; Abu Yusuf; The Slave-Girl; Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Kasri.
• Characters 3Collective character reference sheet: The Lover; The Beloved; The Bean-Seller; Abu Mohammed Lazybones.
• The Impossible WalletAli and the Kurd before the Kazi, comic impossible contents rising in controlled silhouettes.
• The Lover Before KhalidThe noble youth confesses theft before Khalid, beloved unseen behind a respectful screen.

This edition

Title

Abu Mohammed Lazybones and Other Court Tales

Author

Anonymous

First published

1885

Illustrated plates

84 original artworks · 41 open to everyone

Chapters

8 · about 14,950 words

Reading time

1 h

Language

EN

Formats

Read online · EPUB and PDF download with a subscription

Publisher

LitLab — The Illustrated Classics

On LitLab since

September 2026

Rights

Text in the public domain. Illustrations and edition © LitLab.

Source text

Project Gutenberg #53254