The Trader and the Jinni

Inside this edition

Every LitLab edition is illustrated from the text itself — the world of the book mapped, its people drawn, its scenes staged. 28 plates are open to everyone in this book; here are 8 of them.

• The Story-World — Four TestimoniesThe trader's road and tree connect to the estates, shore routes, households, and enchanted return paths of three witnesses.
• The Appointed JourneyRoute map from the tree to the Trader's city, household, debt circuit, and return road.
• Connections — Blood, Kinship, and TestimonyKinship, enchantment, rescue, and narration converge in the Jinni's hearing.
• The Characters — Witnesses Before the JinniFourteen distinct identities establish the travellers, transformed kin, and supernatural judges of the tale.
• The Trader — Profilemerchant whose careless cast of a date-stone binds him to a fatal appointment
• The Jinni — Profilesupernatural claimant who demands blood for blood
• The Date-StoneA travelling Trader rests alone beneath a broad tree beside a spring, with horse, dates, travel cloth, ledger satchel, and a single date-stone caught at the instant after it leaves his hand; no victim or injury.
• The Promise to ReturnThe Trader seals his promise beside the tree, then rides toward a distant walled city with the appointed place visible behind him; solemn, no execution imagery.

This edition

Title

The Trader and the Jinni

Author

Anonymous

First published

1885

Illustrated plates

57 original artworks · 28 open to everyone

Chapters

4 · about 5,503 words

Reading time

22 min

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 #51252