Before You Begin

Before you begin.

A merchant’s shop opens a path into the Caliph’s palace. There, Ali bin Bakkar, a descendant of Persian kings, meets Shams al-Nahar, a favourite of Harun al-Rashid. Music becomes conversation, and conversation becomes a bond that other people must carry between rooms, households and riverbanks.

Watch the intermediaries as closely as the lovers. Hospitality, discretion and friendship have different costs for a court favourite, a merchant, a craftsman and an enslaved messenger. The tale often lets fear outrun knowledge: what a character suspects is not always what has happened.

Burton’s English combines ornate prose, poetry and the recurring dawn-breaks of Shahrazad’s narration. This edition preserves nights 153–169 in nine reading units, with the original translator’s notes following their corresponding unit. New maps, profiles and historical context surround the text; scenes and recaps reveal events only after the relevant reading. All portraits and settings are artistic interpretations.