Before You Begin

Before you begin.

Two brothers serving as joint Wazirs in Egypt imagine a future marriage between children not yet born. A quarrel over pride and property drives the younger brother away, and a family story begins to stretch from Cairo to Bassorah and Damascus.

The tale moves through promises, records, clothing, recipes and remembered rooms. People repeatedly try to prove kinship across distance and time, while accidents and acts of power turn recognition into a difficult test.

This anonymous tradition survives here in Richard F. Burton's 1885 English translation and arrangement. Its language and assumptions are historical. The edition preserves that record without endorsing it, while the illustrations avoid reproducing its cruelty or stereotypes.

The gallery follows the tale's people and three-city geography. Its pre-reading Story System reveals only the premise. Five recaps unlock after their reading units, and six optional Story Medallions pause at exact passages.

For adult readers: forced marriage, sexual description, slavery, corporal punishment, threats of execution, disability stigma, misogyny and racist historical language.